


Time After Time

by moon_raes



Category: Longmire (TV)
Genre: Coming back home after a long while, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Slow Burn, bringing trouble with you, gets a bit violent near the middle and end but I'll be warning you guys as the chapters come out, i guess?, i hate tagging this stuff, its complicated
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:27:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 36,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21852943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moon_raes/pseuds/moon_raes
Summary: Luna's back in Durant for the first time in nearly 20 years. All the reasons why she left originally are in the past and no longer matter. All she wants to do is open up a photography store and spend the rest of her life in peace without any drama. But she's been away too long and has forgotten that Absaroka county is anything but that.
Relationships: Cady Longmire & Original Female Character, Henry Standing Bear/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 51





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I suck at summaries lol. Luna's an OC of mine, who I have multiple story ideas for. I might publish the other ideas some day, but as of right now this is just a starting point. Even if nobody reads this, its something I want to try and finish for once since I'm very bad at following through with things. BUT. If you are reading this, I hope you enjoy it! :)
> 
> (Oh also, the story will pull from the plot of the show, but most of it will be completely new)

The town of Durant was busy on such a sunny day. They were a commodity in the fall months, but only for a short period of time before the snow began to fly. From September to the middle of November the foliage drew in outsiders from all across Wyoming. They would stay for days at a time just to walk around and admire the gradient of colors across the town square’s small forest of trees.

Luna Bellamy smiled up at one particular oak tree that was sporting a variety of gold and brown leaves. The fall was definitely her favourite time of year and, even if it was unintentional, she was glad to have picked this time to finally come home to Absaroka county. As she walked around the packs of tourists, minding her distance as she did, she caught sight of her destination; the sheriff’s station on the other side of the square.

Even though Luna had only been in the county for no more than two hours, she couldn’t wait to get out of her mother’s house and revisit the town she had grown up in. It had been a very long time since she had just walked around Durant to admire its hidden beauty.

Since then, a lot of things had happened. Including one of her best friends being appointed sheriff and keeping said position for the entire time Luna had been gone. She felt that she owed him a visit first and foremost.

She crossed the street and walked inside, lightly hopping up the few steps of the lobby before opening the office door. Once inside, she caught sight of Ruby; the receptionist for the sheriff’s department. Beyond the divider door sat three deputies at their own desks; one who looked oddly familiar to Luna. The three of them collectively stared at her, which didn’t help her anxiety one bit.

Regardless, she kept her head down and patiently waiting for Ruby, who had yet to look up from what she was doing.

She was on the phone and writing something down on a notepad at the same time. “Okay, I’ll tell him you called. Thank you… Goodbye.”

Their eyes met the moment the phone was back on its receiver and Ruby let out a loud gasp as she brought her hands up to cover her mouth. “Well my word! Hello sweetheart!”

Luna gave her a wide smile. “Hey Ruby.”

“Oh come here and give me a hug!” The older woman demanded as she rounded her desk. “It is so good to see you!”

“It’s good to see you too!” Luna laughed and hugged her tight. “I hope you’re keeping busy.”

“Absolutely.” Ruby’s hands began to wave in excitement. “Oh I must get the sheriff out here, he’ll be so thrilled to see you!”

Luna waited with her hands in her pockets as Ruby got back on the phone. “Walt, I need you to come out here for a moment. It’s important.”

It only took a handful of seconds before another door was opening and the sound of footsteps were rounding the corner. Walt Longmire stopped short as soon as he saw who was standing in front of his receptionists’ desk, but quickly regained his steps as a smile stretched out across his usual sour face. “Well I’ll be damned. What’re you doing here, Bell?”

Luna smirked and took a few steps to meet him before she wrapped him up in a hug. “Just had to make sure you were still kicking around in here.”

He chuckled and gave her shoulder a tender squeeze. “It’s good to see you. Why don’t we talk in my office?”

She nodded and followed him inside, ignoring the stares she was still getting from his three deputies. She closed the door behind herself and jerked a thumb back at it. “Is that Branch Connally sitting out there?”

Walt scoffed. “Yeah, best not to ask.”

Luna chuckled in disbelief; she could remember that kid running around in diapers. “Wow.”

“So, how long will you be in town?” Walt asked her while motioning for her to sit in one of the chairs.

Luna did and rubbed her knees anxiously. She knew coming in here would mean answering questions she didn’t want to talk about, but it still didn’t make it any easier. “Uh, for the foreseeable future I guess?”

He sat down in front of her on the edge of his desk. “Oh?”

“Things have ended in New York. Permanently.” Luna stared at the floor for a moment before giving him a shrug. “And so I decided to come back…”

Walt nodded in understanding. “I’m sorry things ended badly out there for you. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I’m glad you’ve come home for good.”

She smiled up at him weakly. “Better late than never I suppose.”

He watched her carefully, just like he always had. “You wanna talk about it?”

“Not really.” She gave a sad laugh and began to pick at her fingernails. “It was just getting too hard to justify why I was still there. So I left.”

“I see…” A few moments of silence passed and Luna knew exactly what question was coming next.

“Have you been to see Henry yet?”

Her weak smile remained. “Just couldn’t hold that one in, could you?”

Walt raised an eyebrow, waiting for an answer.

She sighed and squeezed her eyes shut. “No, I haven’t gone to the Red Pony yet… I don’t know what to expect from him after… yenno...”

Walt frowned and gave a slow nod of his head. “Yeah…”

It made Luna sick to her stomach whenever she thought about the last time she had been in Durant. It was just shy of a year ago and had been for the funeral of one of her best friends; Walt’s wife, Martha. She had been so upset and on such a time crunch that she didn’t even get the chance to talk to Henry.

Or at least talk to him _properly_. The conversation that had actually transpired wasn’t exactly a fond one.

“But this is Henry we’re talking about.” Walt broke her out of her dark thoughts. “I don’t think he’s capable of holding a grudge, at least not against you.”

“Yeah, well regardless of that I still can’t bring myself to go.” Luna opened her eyes and crossed her arms. “Deena’s still around I’m assuming?”

“Yeah.” Walt grimaced and copied her movement. “Been hovering around a lot more since you left last.”

“Doesn’t surprise me, and that’s something I’d rather not get involved in.” Luna leaned back in her chair with a sigh. “I came back here to get away from drama, not dive headfirst into it again.”

“Fair enough. Although, you can’t sit there and tell me that you expect your arrival to go unnoticed in this town.”

Luna gave him a pointed look in response.

“Alright,” He tried to hide the laughter in his voice as he stood up to retrieve his hat and coat. “Well, if you change your mind, we’re having drinks at the Pony tonight for Cady’s birthday. I think she’d really like to see you.”

A smile crossed Luna’s face at the mention of her. Before the funeral, she hadn’t physically seen Cady in nearly seven years. “I’d really like to see her too.”

“All the more reason you should make yourself known.” Walt walked over to the door and opened it for her. “I’ve got to head over there now. I won’t say anything to Henry, but I expect you to show up tonight. Because the two of you really need to talk things out.”

“You’re a cruel man, Walter.” Luna declared as she stood up and followed him. “Fine, I’ll be there. But only for my goddaughter.”

“Good.” He smiled and led her outside. “And remember to play nice.”

“I’m not making any promises.”

“Worth a shot.” He wrapped her up in a quick hug. “I’m glad you’re back, Bell.”

Luna held him just as tight. “Glad to be back. I’ll see you later.”

She watched Walt climb into his truck and take off. After he was gone Luna stuffed her hands in her pockets and let out a burst of air before heading down the street. Why did she do this to herself? She knew coming back here would hurt, that it would be difficult. But she also knew that the pain would be heaven compared to the alternative.

============

_“You’re certain about this?”_

_Her hands shook as she proceeded to pack up her things. What little things she did have that couldn’t be traced back here and vice versa. “Yes. I can’t do this anymore. I’m done.”_

_The CIA agent watching her do this didn’t look any better than she felt. But he was smart, good looking, and knew how to do his job. That was how Luna had found a way out of this mess in the first place._

_“You know he’ll come looking for you.” It was a statement, not a question._

_“He can try.” Luna wiped the sweat off her forehead before zipping her bag shut. “I think you underestimate me, agent Gavin.”_

_“I didn’t say that.” Gavin pulled a brown envelope out of his jacket pocket and handed it to her. “Your ticket, your passport, and cash.”_

_Luna stared down at the name on the parcel; Cecilia Payne._

_“Thank you.” She held onto it tight. “I appreciate this.”_

_Gavin nodded. “I know it couldn’t have been easy, doing this for the last twenty years. You deserve more.”_

_“No,” Luna glanced out the window at the bright lights of New York City. “I deserve to go home.”_

============

Three blocks away in the tiny financial district of Durant, Luna unlocked the front door of a small building with a faded sign on it that read: _Thandie’s Corner_. The door stuck, so she gave it a good shove before it popped open, releasing a rank smell of musk and rubbing alcohol.

The windows were the next thing she opened, she hurried to the back of the store where a staircase led to an apartment above and popped the hallway’s window open as well. She would get to it eventually, right now her main focus was cleaning the shop and getting it up and running again.

Luna had been at it for a while when her mother finally stopped by. She was in the middle of cleaning up a bunch of old newspapers when she heard footsteps coming through the front door. “Oh, well would you look at this.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that you left this place a mess when you closed it down?” Luna greeted her as she dropped a pile of the papers into the recycling bin.

“Because I knew you would come back someday to claim the shop as your own.” Thandie smiled widely at her daughter. “Figured you would need the extra work.”

Luna chuckled and wiped her hands off on her pants. “How thoughtful of you.”

“It really does look great so far though, honey.” Thandie smiled around the shop. “Your father would be so proud of you coming back here to refurbish this place.”

Luna smiled more to herself as she carried on cleaning. “Well he made it for you, how could I just let it sit here?”

Thandie chuckled and began to help. “So have you been to see the sheriff yet?”

“I have,” Luna said, knowing full well what her mother was truly getting at. It seemed to be all that anybody cared about around here. “it was really good to see him.”

“What about Henry?”

Luna rolled her eyes up to the ceiling but carried on with her work. “Not yet, but I’m going to the Red Pony later. It’s Cady’s birthday tomorrow and they’re having drinks for her tonight.”

“Oh that’ll be fun! It’ll be good to catch up with him.” Thandie said in a gleeful tone.

“Mom.” Luna grabbed the broom. “It’s been almost twenty years. When are you going to give this up?”

“When I’m dead.” Thandie declared, waving a duster around. “You two were a match made in heaven! I’m sure you’ll be able to work things out even after all this time!”

Luna shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s changed. Maybe he doesn’t want to see me.”

“Oh stop it, Laluna.” Thandie swatted her gently with the feather end of the duster. “That boy was crazy about you, and I know that he always will be.”

“Do you now?”

“Yes, and despite what you may try and make others believe, I know that you’re still crazy about him too.”

“Hmm.” Luna didn’t say anything else and went back to work.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luna braces herself for the big reunion at the Red Pony. Is it going to go smoothly? Probably not.

The Red Pony was as lively as ever. Music was blaring, people were dancing, and customers were laughing. For Henry there wasn’t anything that made him happier than a good night with no trouble. They were rarer nowadays, but when they showed up it always set his mood for the entire night.

“Isn’t that illegal?” Vic was asking from the table closest to the bar and kitchen.

“On a technicality in Absaroka county? No.” Cady shook her head while taking a bite of her cake. “Dad knew it too.”

Walt gave a small smile and a shrug as Vic continued to razz him, all while Henry looked on from behind the bar with a grin on his face. He finished with the refills of beer and walked back over to the nearby table. “There are some things in life that only experience can teach.”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure the two of you are full of stories about that.” Vic laughed before taking a sip of her beer. “With so many years of _wisdom_ split between you?”

Cady giggled and Henry exchanged glances with Walt before he noticed Walt’s eyes going past him, and the table, towards the door. A smile then emerged onto his face and he leaned in to speak to his daughter. “I have a surprise for you.”

“A surprise?” Cady blinked. “What is it?”

Walt motioned towards the door and Cady spun around. Almost immediately she let out a gasp and took off running, nearly knocking her chair over as she did.

Confused, Henry turned to see for himself and instantly he felt his heart practically leap out of his chest. He watched, almost in disbelief, as Cady hugged a woman with luscious black hair and a contagiously bright smile. A smile that went all the way up to her eyes, a smile that Henry could recognize anywhere.

Luna Bellamy hugged Cady for a long few seconds before cupping her cheeks and kissing her forehead. They stood there chatting amongst themselves for a moment before Cady pointed back to the table. Luna followed her direction and soon Henry was staring into a pair of vibrant amber eyes.

Her face changed as soon as she saw him, the smile that was once there suddenly faltered and was replaced with a placid expression. Henry knew she was nervous behind her calm demeanor, they had both been very good at reading each other’s masked expressions in the past.

But regardless of this, she didn’t break eye contact as she approached. And the closer she got, the farther away Henry’s mind went. Back to the last time he had seen her, more than a year ago…

============

_Martha’s funeral was small, personal, private._

_Henry had gotten up the courage to say a few words during the service, and while he had been standing at the front speaking, he spotted someone arriving late at the back. Her plum colored coat stood out in the sea of black and she sat silently, listening to Henry’s words._

_Afterwards at the reception he watched Luna give her condolences to Walt and Cady. She gave Walt a tight hug and kissed his cheek, while she tucked Cady’s hair behind her ear and held her close as the young woman sobbed into her chest._

_Despite his desire to walk up and kiss the daylights out of his ex-girlfriend, Henry kept his distance. He studied her movements carefully, noticing how she had her hair down and covering the left side of her neck and how she was constantly touching it to make sure it was still there._

_Before the funeral it had been nearly seven years since Luna had been back to Durant. Before that her visits were more consistent, being no more than two years apart. Where had she been all this time? And why had she stayed away so long?_

_Just then Luna pulled her phone out of her pocket and frowned at the screen. She quickly glanced back towards the door and bit her lip before putting her phone in her coat. Henry could tell she was giving apologies and condolences when she walked back up to Cady and Walt, and with one final goodbye she was briskly walking towards the door._

_Henry hardly had to think twice before following her._

_He threw the double doors open and began walking down the long staircase of the church. “Luna.”_

_She stopped on the first landing and took a moment before turning around to face him. “Henry. I can’t do this right now, I’m sorry, but I have to leave.”_

_“What do you mean leave? You just got here.” He said as he stopped in front of her. “I saw you arrive late as well. Where do you have to be in such a hurry?”_

_Luna bit her lip and ran her hand through her hair again, but this time Henry caught sight of a purple blotch against her skin. “I don’t have time for this, I need to-“_

_He immediately grabbed her hand and brushed her hair back. It was a bruise, much bigger than just the blotch. It was the layout of a handprint._

_Something inside him snapped and his voice became harsh. “Who did this to you?”_

_Luna looked away and sighed. “Henry.”_

_“What is going on Luna? Where have you been? What have you gotten yourself into?” He demanded all at once._

_Before she could speak, a car horn went off. It was long and repeated itself several time._

_Henry and Luna both turned to the bottom of the church steps and that’s when he saw the black SUV parked and waiting. Waiting for Luna._

_“I’m sorry Henry, I truly am.” She spoke quietly as she carefully released his hand. “Maybe someday I’ll get the chance to explain it to you.”_

_He tried to get her to look at him. “Explain what?”_

_Luna shook her head and continued her way down the steps. He didn’t call after her, like he desperately wanted to do, instead he just stood by and watched her go._

_She stopped at the car door and looked up at him with tears in her eyes. It took another honk of the horn to finally make her tare her gaze away from him. Without a word she climbed inside and the SUV took off._

_Henry tried to search for her after that day, but he found nothing. He found no evidence of her ever being in Durant for more than the hour she spent in that church. Her mother, Thandie hadn’t even known about her arrival._

_So despite himself, Henry was forced to drop it. Luna became a ghost to him once more, a ghost he desperately wanted to see._

============

“Hey, isn’t that the girl that was in your office this morning?” Vic’s question snapped Henry out of his daze.

He spun around to shoot Walt a questionable scowl. “What?”

“Uh,” Walt cleared his throat and looked back at Henry nervously. “Yeah, yeah she is.”

“Well Cady seems pretty happy to see her.” Said Vic, “Who is she?”

“An old friend.” Was all Walt had time to say before Cady and Luna were approaching the table.

“Dad I can’t believe you! I spent all afternoon with you and you didn’t tell me she was here?” Cady scolded with the biggest smile that Henry had ever seen.

Walt gave a sheepish shrug.

“Hey now, you can’t blame him.” Luna chuckled and squeezed Cady’s arm. “I wanted to surprise you!”

Cady gave her godmother a tight side hug. “Well consider me surprised!”

“Well I’m glad!” She stopped right in front of Henry and gave a thin smile, which he knew held genuine meaning beneath it. “Hello Henry.”

“Luna.” He managed to speak. They remained fixed on each other for a long time before he spoke again. “It is good to see you. Welcome home.”

“It’s good to be home.” Luna continued to stare back.

Oh how he wanted to touch her. To hold her in his arms and never let go. To kiss her soft lips one last time. To hear her whisper his name as the moon stood high in the night sky. To have her be his once more.

Henry cleared his throat before breaking away from Luna’s stare and sped to grab any empties off the table. “Forgive me, but I have other customers to attend to. I will check back later.”

He quickly hurried back to the bar with two bottles in his hands. He clutched them tightly, desperately trying to calm his nerves, the sudden rise in his blood pressure, and his heartbeat.

So he watched from afar as Luna sat at the table and was introduced to Vic. The two seemed to hit it off nicely, having the compatible wit of sarcasm as well as the joy to poke fun at Walt. Luna began telling stories of their youth, stories that made the other girls laugh and even got a chuckle out of Walt from time to time. Henry didn’t stray too far, and even if he did, he wasn’t gone long. The sudden need to be right beside her was adamant and demanding yet again.

Just like it always had been.

He had busied himself with cleaning some dirty shot glasses when he was gently hip checked from his left. “You know you’re staring, right?”

Henry glanced up and saw Jess, one of his barmaids, grinning beside him.

He coolly set down one of the glasses and picked up another. “Staring at what?”

“More like who,” She chuckled and looked over at the table. “I’m going to assume that you didn’t know she was back in town?”

“No, I did not.” Henry sighed. Jess was an extremely perceptive woman, so there was no point in denying what he thought. “Did you?”

“Yeah, I saw her at her mother’s store earlier today. I think she’s cleaning it up to reopen it.” Jess shrugged. “But I could be wrong, I didn’t have time to stop and talk to her.”

“How come?”

“Because I was on my way here.”

Henry rolled his eyes as the grin on Jess’ face got bigger. “If all you are going to do is pester me then might I suggest you get back to work?”

She giggled and gave his arm a pat before doing as she was told. “You could at least talk to her, what’s the worst that could happen?”

 _Many, many things._ He thought as he focused back on what he was doing. He snuck a glance at the table when he heard Luna giggle at something Cady had said. She brushed her hair behind her ear, giving Henry a clear view of the left side of her neck. The handprint was now completely gone.

Sometime later Walt came to the bar for some refills.

“Tell me,” Henry muttered as he pulled out the beer. “What did I do to deserve this cruel and unusual punishment?”

Walt raised an eyebrow at him and rested an arm on the bar. “Nothing more than usual, I suppose. Why?”

“We spoke for nearly two hours today, why did you not tell me that Luna was here?” Henry demanded in a hushed tone. “I should cut you off from drinking just for that.”

“Oh you don’t mean that.” Walt brushed the threat off easily and scanned the room for a quick moment. “You’re just embarrassed.”

Without denying anything Henry pressed on. “Why did you not tell me?”

“Because she didn’t want me to.” Walt looked back at him. “She was nervous enough talking about her arrival before I even brought you up.”

Henry arched an eyebrow. “How so?”

“She got all fidgety on me. Said things ended badly in New York and wouldn’t go into detail.” Walt shrugged. “She isn’t going back either, told me she’s here to stay.”

“New York? I thought when Cady last spoke with her she was in Paris.”

Walt simply shrugged again.

Concerned, Henry glanced over at the table just as Vic laughed at something Cady had said while Luna modestly shook her head. “Something serious must have happened to bring her back here permanently, after all this time.”

“Which is why you two need to talk things out. Soon.” Walt told him as he grabbed the refills of beer. “Because if I’m being perfectly honest? It’s only been an hour and already you two are driving me crazy.”

============

Luna watched her two best friends quietly bickering at the bar. No doubt about Walt’s promise to keep her presence on the downlow for the entire day. Henry was clearly trying to hide his frustration while Walt continued to be steadfast in an attempt at calming him down.

She smiled at the sight. It was nice to know that some things changed while others stayed very much the same.

“He is not okay right now.” Cady said to her with an impish grin on her face. Ever since she was old enough to understand it, she had been in the know about her godparent’s relationship. Luna had always had a sneaking suspicion that she got a kick out of its awkwardness.

“I know he’s not but let him alone.” Luna scolded her lightly. “At least I knew what was coming, he didn’t.”

“I’m sorry, I know we just met and all, but I have to ask.” Vic spoke up as she finished off her beer. She dropped the bottle on the table and leaned in closer to speak quietly. “Did something happen between you and Henry? Because with the way he keeps looking over here I _swear_ I can cut this sexual tension with a freaking spoon right now.”

Cady’s grin grew even bigger as she looked over at Luna who sighed and gave a simple nod of her head. “Yes, something did happen. But it’s long, and complicated, and kind of pathetic.”

“Huge drama.” Cady supplied, causing Luna to shoot her a look.

“Huh,” Vic glanced over at the bar. “Didn’t know Henry had that kind of relationship before. You know he’s got a girlfriend, right?”

“Yes.” Luna scoffed and downed the rest of her drink. “Don’t remind me.”

“Even more drama.” Cady practically whispered, which caused Vic to laugh.

“What, is there some sort of love triangle going on here?”

“No, no, no, no.” Luna quickly clarified with a point of a finger. “No. I came back here to cut drama out of my life, not find more of it.”

“Well then you’d better brace yourself because it looks like it’s coming to find you.” Vic warned her moments before a high-pitched squeal came from the front of the room.

Luna sighed and closed her eyes. She couldn’t bring herself to turn around and look at the disaster that was no doubt making its way towards this end of the bar. “God help me.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes animosity never dies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may seem a little OOC for some people but I just really didn't like Deena so I really don't care lol.

A woman with long wavy curls and clads of jewelry hopped over the bar, shoved passed Jess, and practically tackled Henry to the floor as she continued to laugh uncontrollably. “Hey baby! I decided to come home early!”

“So I see.” Henry barely caught her and stood her up right again. “Have you been drinking already?”

Deena let out an obnoxious laugh and wrapped her arms around Henry’s neck. “Yeah, some friends of mine got their hands on some moonshine after the match and it feels greaaat.”

“Oh god.” Vic sighed and glanced between their table and the bar. “This’ll be fun.”

Cady only shook her head and took a nervous sip of her beer.

Luna remained quiet and watched Henry attempt to keep Deena upright beside him. It didn’t fair too well for a moment, until Deena was planting a giant kiss on Henry’s lips. “I missed you.”

Henry sent a quick glance Luna’s way before answering. “I have missed you too.”

Luna immediately lowered her gaze and paid full attention to the empty beer bottle in front of her. She promised herself that she wouldn’t get involved. After all this time, she was _not_ going to get involved.

Too late.

“Weeeell.” Deena’s voice got louder again. “Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in. _Laluna_.”

“Deena.” Henry warned.

Luna glanced up and watched her saunter around the bar towards her with an obvious sway in her steps. The woman was beyond drunk. “Been a hot minute since you’ve been here.”

“Not hot enough if you’re still hanging around.” Luna supplied simply, causing Cady and Vic to snicker quietly.

Deena scowled and yanked the beer bottle out of Luna’s hand before dumping what little contents remained right on Luna’s boot. When Luna didn’t move or break eye contact, Deena let out a sigh and stood there for a moment before suddenly trying to hit Luna with the bottle.

Almost immediately Luna caught it and stood up to be at eye level with Deena. “Really? Already? It’s been all of thirty seconds.”

The room had taken notice of what was happening in the back corner by now and people were starting to stare. Something that Luna was acutely aware of.

So was Walt.

“Deena you need to calm down.” He said as he approached the two women cautiously.

Deena sneered in Luna’s face. “I am calm Walt, we’re just messing around. Right Loony?”

“Uh huh, okay.” Luna yanked the bottle out of her grasp and set it on the table. “I think you’ve had enough. Which is strange since you’ve only been in the room for about a minute.”

“Forgive me for knowing how to have fun.” Deena smirked and crossed her arms. “Speaking of which, how long will you be sticking around this time before you leave and break poor Henry’s heart again?”

“Deena.” Luna heard the harshness in Henry’s tone of voice.

Her jaw clenched while the expression on her face remained the same. She was desperate to not let Deena get the better of her. “What does that matter to you?”

“Oh it matters plenty to me.” Deena leaned forward a bit to whisper. “He’s especially great in bed after you’ve left town. I just wanted a heads up so that I knew when to look forward to it.”

“That is enough.” Henry finally emerged from the bar and began to push his way in front of his drunk girlfriend. “I need to take you home.”

Deena smiled and wrapped an arm around his neck. “Yeah you do, Standing Bear. And I can’t wait to see what you do to me when we get there.”

Luna rolled her eyes and turned around to grab her coat. “Alright, well I think I’ve had enough fun for one night.”

“Luna no,” Henry turned to her with a hand still around Deena’s waist. “I will take her, you do not have to leave.”

“No, no. I think it’s pretty clear that I’m the one who has to go.” She bit out, despite herself.

“Hey!” Deena reached around Henry and shoved Luna into the table. “You didn’t answer me!”

“Deena!” Henry shouted. “I said that is enough.”

Luna hit the table but luckily was able to catch herself with her palms. She let out a growl and glanced over at Cady who was still sitting there with a bit of fear in her eyes, which made the anger disappear pretty quickly.

She didn’t want to do this in front of her goddaughter, so Luna decided to walk away.

Very slowly she stood up right and turned around to calmly look Deena in the eye. “I just got here, I’m not in the mood to deal with your absolute _idiocy_ yet.”

And with that, she gave Cady a small pat on the cheek before heading for the front door. “I’ll call you tomorrow sweetheart.”

She was halfway across the room when she heard Henry shout out once more. Luna looked over her shoulder just in time to find Deena right there and throwing a punch. Her fist connected before Luna had time to react and the next thing she knew she was falling into another table before hitting the floor.

The room went into a frenzy of noise.

“Luna!” Cady cried out.

“That does it Deena, c’mon!” Walt was saying before heavy footsteps were rushing by.

“Oh my god, she’s fine!” Deena’s voice trailed. “It’s good that she gets put in her place for once.”

“Oh shut up!” Vic barked.

Dazed, Luna groaned and tried to push herself up but soon felt hands helping her. She was brought to a sitting position and saw Cady crouched down on one side of her while Henry was on the other with a cloth in his hand. “Luna, are you alright?”

That’s when Luna realized that blood was gushing from her nose and had covered her clothes. Pissed and pretty embarrassed, she yanked the cloth out of his hand and pressed it to her face. “I’m fine.”

“Oh my god, your forehead’s split open.” Cady winced.

“Really, it’s nothin-” Luna argued as she attempted to stand up. Almost immediately she was stumbling back to the floor but was caught by Henry. “Damnit.”

“Just take a second.” The concern on his face was palpable and it wasn’t lost on Luna how tightly he was holding her. It felt weird yet eerily comforting to be in his arms again. “Perhaps you should be taken to the hospital.”

She tried to stand up again. “No.”

“Luna.” He sighed.

“I’m fine!” She fumbled moments after the words left her mouth and Henry was hanging onto her yet again.

He stared down at her with a familiar sense of worry in his eyes. “Do not make me drag you there.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time.” Luna pushed up on his chest and he released his hold on her. “Really Henry, I’m fine. Cady, help me outside will you?”

Cady nodded and helped haul her up to her feet. The two of them passed through the sea of watching people, including Henry, and headed outside.

They got to the parking lot just in time to see Vic put Deena in the back of her truck. Walt said something to her quick before he walked over to Luna and Cady. “You okay?”

“This is what I get for taking the high road.” Luna scoffed, holding the cloth harder against her bloody nose. “I knew this was a bad idea.”

Walt didn’t have time to say anything else before he was looking back at the doorway of the bar. Luna turned and saw Henry walking towards them.

“She should go to the hospital.” He said with a concerned expression on his face. “Now.”

“No,” Luna groaned and gripped Cady’s shoulder tighter. “I don’t need to go to a hospital, I just need to go to my mother’s.”

“I’ll take her.” Cady offered.

“No, I will.” Walt watched Vic leave the parking lot. “Cady go put her in the Bronco. You can follow us in her car.”

Cady nodded and led Luna to Walt’s truck.

“Quite the birthday party, huh?” Luna asked her.

Cady let out a small laugh and opened the door. “You’re not funny.”

Luna offered out her keys. “Sorry.”

After making sure she was in properly, Cady headed back to Walt and Henry. This gave Luna a moment to herself. She closed her eyes and rested her head against the seat as she tried to calm herself down. The pain was faint, barely there, but the embarrassment and frustration were strong.

Who was she kidding? She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t be here in Absaroka, around Durant, around _Henry_ , and expect nothing to happen. She was an idiot for ever thinking otherwise.

When she opened her eyes the three of them were still standing there talking. She watched Henry, who was still looking pretty upset and talking with Walt. Then he looked at her and the anger dropped from his eyes. In them Luna could see guilt, and a bunch of unspoken words.

Or at least she thought she did, she had no way of being sure. Not anymore.

Begrudgingly, she tore her gaze away from him and stared out at the stars above being accompanied by the full moon. She couldn’t help but think back to a certain night she had been sitting under the moon as a teenager, covered in blood, with Henry still insisting that she go to a hospital.

============

_“You really need to stop picking fights with people who are bigger than you.” Was the first thing Henry had said when he arrived at their usual spot. It was a cave on the Cheyenne reservation that overlooked the forest and was one of the few places that either of them could be found when they wanted to be alone. Luna sat outside of the cave’s mouth near the edge of the cliff that the structure rested on with her feet dangling._

_She turned and smiled up at him after he had spoken. Dried blood covered her shirt and ran down her face._

_Henry sighed as he dropped down beside her and pulled a rag out of the backpack he had been carrying. He held it out to her while he continued to dig around for something else. “I am amazed you have not broken anything yet.”_

_“Guess I’m just lucky like that.” She said in a flat voice due to the dried blood that was clogging up her nose. She took the rag and wiped at her face. “And I’ll stop fighting when_ you _stop fighting.”_

_“I suppose we will both be getting bloody noses for a very long time then.” Henry retorted as he pulled out a water bottle and took the rag back to soak it. “What was it about?”_

_Luna stared out into the night, down at the creek they were sitting above. “You.”_

_“Me?” Henry arched an eyebrow and began to wipe at her face. “What about me?”_

_“Just some racist assholes.” She wouldn’t look at him. “That’s all.”_

_It was quiet for a minute before Henry sighed and finished up with the blood. “What are the odds that you will let me take you to a hospital to get checked out?”_

_“Slim.” Luna chuckled and leaned on his shoulder. “Besides, my parents would freak out if they got a call from the hospital at this time of night.”_

_He tossed the rag on the ground and wrapped his arms around her. “Fair enough.”_

_It fell into a comfortable silence for a little bit, then Henry spoke up again._

_“You know that you do not have to fight on my account.”_

_Luna looked up at him with an arched eyebrow. “Are you serious? Of course I do. You do the exact same thing.”_

_“That is not the point.“ He sighed again as he stared out into the wilderness. “I do not want anything to happen to you because of me.”_

_She couldn’t help but smile at his words. “Well I hate to break it to you babe, but that’s already happened. Several times.”_

_“You know what I mean.” Henry leaned in closer to her. “But I guess I should not be surprised anymore. You are too stubborn to not do anything you do not want to, right?”_

_“Yes.” Luna reached up and brushed a thumb over his skin. “And don’t you forget it.”_

_He smiled and kissed her lips. “I really do think you should go to the hospital though.”_

_“Tell you what,” She turned herself around so that she was sitting in his lap, straddling him. “You can take me to the hospital right after we’re done here, how’s that?”_

_A hum left Henry’s lips as Luna kissed him. “You are a minx, Luna Strongbow.”_

============

Just then the driver side door opened and Walt hopped in. Luna didn’t say anything as they left the parking lot, with Cady behind them and Henry watching from the door.

They were on the highway when he finally spoke. “So much for not getting involved, huh?”

“Oh shut the hell up, Walt.” Luna huffed as she examined the drying blood on her face. “I knew this would happen.”

“You had no idea Deena would show up completely drunk.” He tried to hide the smile on his face. “The night would have been fine otherwise.”

“Yeah well knowing my luck I should have assumed that it wouldn’t be.” She sighed and balled up the cloth to wipe at her forehead. “I should have clocked her in the face when I had the chance.”

“I doubt that would have helped the situation.”

“No, but it would have made me feel better.”

It was quiet again for the rest of the drive to her Mother’s.

Walt stopped in front of Thandie’s house and parked his truck while Cady backed Luna’s car into the driveway. He turned towards her and rested his arm on the steering wheel. “What?”

Luna wouldn’t look away from the moon up above. “Was this a bad idea? Me coming home?”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because look what’s happened! I’ve been here not even a full 24 hours and I’ve already gotten my ass handed to me in a bar full of people!”

Walt chuckled. “Well, first days always are the worst.”

Luna leered over at him, clearly not in the mood.

He cleared his throat and put a hand on her shoulder. “Things will work themselves out, Bell. You just gotta give it some time.”

“What if they don’t? What if I screw this up?” She sighed and stared down at the bloody cloth in her hands. “Although I guess that’s pretty much impossible to do a second time, huh?”

“You’re not gonna screw up. You’re gonna make things right and it’s gonna be okay.”

Luna looked over at him and saw genuine sincerity in his eyes, like he felt sorry for her. “I’m sorry I left.”

He gave her a small smile. “I appreciate that, but yenno it’s not me you have to apologize to, right?”

“Yeah.” She took off her seat belt and opened the door. “That’s gonna be a fun conversation.”

“It’ll happen in time.” Walt reassured her. “Go get some sleep.”

“Should take your own advice.” Luna retorted as Cady approached the Bronco. They exchanged keys and hugs before Cady climbed into the passenger seat. Wishing them both a goodnight, Luna stood on the curb and waited until the Longmire’s had turned onto another street before she went inside.

She tiptoed passed the living room and was unsurprised to find her stepfather passed out and snoring in front of the tv in the dark. Luna rolled her eyes and headed down to the basement where her room was. She made sure to put her bloody clothes in the laundry before hopping into the shower to quickly clean the rest of the blood off of her face and neck.

She was standing in front of the mirror putting some butterfly closure bandages on her forehead when her phone began to ring. She glanced down at the screen and stared at the name for three long rings until it went to voice mail. No message was left. She sighed and went back to what she was doing.

Henry’s tendency to worry still hadn’t changed.

The mattress squeaked beneath her as Luna dropped down onto it. She let out a groan and tried her best to relax her body and _not_ think about Henry. After about an hour of no avail, Luna picked up her phone and stared at the screen again. The temptation to call him back was very strong.

But she still couldn’t bring herself to do it.

Instead she set her phone back on her nightstand and stared up at the ceiling until sleep eventually found her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Henry and Luna finally get the chance to talk one on one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one is longer than the last few have been, I kinda ran away with the flashback lol.

“You got into a fight?!” Was what Luna was greeted with the next morning in her shop.

Confused, she looked up from packing a box of old chemicals to find her mother coming through the door. “Good morning to you too.”

Thandie let out a huff and set down two cups of coffee on the glass case front counter. “I just heard from Elissa Coleman that you got into a fist fight with some girl last night at the Red Pony!”

“I did not get into a fist fight, please calm down.” With a grunt Luna lifted the box and added it to the growing pile of garbage at the back. “Deena was really drunk and things just got out of hand, it’s fine.”

“It’s fine? She gave you a bloody nose and split open your face!” Thandie sighed and shook her head. “I never liked that girl. She has no respect for anyone but herself. I don’t know how Henry could be so dense in picking her over you.”

“Mom.” Luna groaned.

“Did you at least get the chance to talk to him last night before all this mayhem?”

“Sort of.”

“What do you mean sort of? Was he not happy to see you?”

“ _Mom_.” Luna snapped and covered her face with her hands. “Can you just drop it? Please?”

“Alright, alright.” Thandie put one hand up defensively while taking a sip of her coffee with the other. “What time did you get home anyway? Wayne didn’t hear you come in.”

“That’s because Wayne was passed out in front of the tv.” Luna retorted, taking the lid off her cup to let cool. “Which, I’m pretty sure, is the same place I saw him before I left the last time I was here.”

“Hey,” Thandie scolded. “Stop that.”

“Then stop talking about Henry.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

Luna suddenly felt vibrations from her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. She frowned when she saw Henry’s name on the screen and clicked ignore before setting it down.

Thandie watched her do this and raised an eyebrow. “Who was it?”

“I don’t know.” Luna lied. “I didn’t recognize the number.”

She had time to move one more box of chemicals before her phone was ringing again. This time however, she was happy to answer it. “Good morning sweetheart, happy birthday.”

Cady gave a lighthearted laugh from the other end. “Thank you. I just wanted to call and see how you were feeling today.”

“Oh I’m fine, a bit of a headache but I’m sure I’ll make it.” Luna told her as she watched her mother pick up an old box of papers and start rummaging through them. “I appreciate you checking up on me though.”

“Well we were pretty worried about you after last night, especially Henry.” Cady said the last part almost like an afterthought. “He feels really bad about Deena.”

“He shouldn’t.” Luna attempted to pick up another box with a huff. “It’s not his fault that she was drunk.”

“That’s what I tried to tell him. Are you okay? You sound like you’re lifting stuff.”

“I am. I’m trying to clean up the shop.”

“Oh you’re at the shop!” Cady exclaimed excitedly. “Cleaning it up to reopen it? That’s so great.”

“Yeah, figured it would give me something to do now that I’m back in town.” Luna chuckled, getting a good grip on the box. “And we all know I could never work for someone else.”

“No argument there.” Cady laughed. “Listen, I’ve got to get to work, but I’ll talk to you later okay? Maybe we can have dinner or something.”

“Absolutely! I still have your birthday present to give you.” Luna smiled into the phone. “You just give me a time and place and we’ll make it work, okay?”

“Sounds good Luna.” Cady beamed. “I’ll see you later, love you!”

“Love you too sweetheart.” Luna dropped the box and hung up seconds later with a long exhale of breath. That would be one good habit she would like to get back into; spending as much time with her goddaughter as possible.

Ever since Luna had left Durant she had felt extremely guilty about leaving everyone she loved behind. Her goddaughter was near the top of that list, so she tried to stay in contact with Cady as much as she could allow. This included mailing letters with no return address, skype calls on burner phones, and silently watching from afar as she grew from a child into a woman.

One particular memory struck Luna in that moment; the day of Cady’s graduation from law school.

============

_Luna knew that Cady had attended law school somewhere in New York City. She intentionally made sure to not find out which school though, in fear of being unable to stop herself from seeking her goddaughter out. Luna didn’t even know it was the day of Cady’s graduation until she got a call the night before. A call to the number of her current burner phone that she had talked to Cady on nearly a month prior._

_But it hadn’t been Cady who had called her. It was Martha._

_Luna had just returned to New York and was sleeping when the call came in around noon. She woke up five hours later to a voice message from her former best friend._

_“Hey Lune. It’s Martha. I snuck into Cady’s phone to get this number… Why you won’t let anybody else have it I don’t know, but I’m glad you’re at least talking to Cady so she can let us know that you’re still alive…” The frustration in Martha’s voice made Luna wince. She couldn’t blame her friend for the animosity against her, but it still hurt to know that it was there._

_Martha sighed. “Anyway, tomorrow is Cady’s graduation from Columbia. The ceremony starts at 2 and I know calling you is a long shot because you may not even be in the city right now but…”_

_The line went quiet for a solid ten seconds and for a moment Luna thought Martha had hung up. Instead Luna heard a sniffle and a faint whisper of “Oh god.” before Martha started talking again. “We miss you. All of us. We would love to see you. Especially Henry, he’s been acting weird lately and I think it has something to do with Deena. He won’t talk about it though, Walt’s tried and let’s just say that it didn’t end very well.”_

_Luna felt tears well up in her eyes as she continued to listen._

_“Anyway uh… I hope you get this, and even if you don’t call back it would be great if you showed up…” Martha spoke quietly. “I love you, and I miss you… so much.”_

_The line went dead after that and Luna had spent the rest of the night crying in her bed. The guilt weighed her down like a thousand anchors. Yet all the while a tiny voice in the back of her mind continued to scream about how horrible of a person she was._

_So, against her better judgement, she decided to head to Columbia University the next day._

_Sneaking into the event wasn’t difficult. It was outside in the courtyard and had more than a thousand people in attendance, so blending into the crowd was extremely easy. Luna gave herself a good vantage point on one of the school’s balconies with a perfect view of where Henry and the Longmire’s were sitting amongst the families of the graduates._

_She waited patiently, keeping still so not to make her position obvious, and passed the time by watching the people she cared about. They had all dressed up nicely for the occasion, Walt was even wearing a tie, and were all smiling ahead proudly as student names continued to be called out._

_It killed Luna not to be down there beside them. Beside Henry with their hands intertwined like Walt and Martha. Godparents were usually chosen in pairs and Luna had severed that bond years ago, so what did that make her now?_

_Eventually Cady’s name was called, along with the acknowledgment that she had been among the top 1% in her class. Despite her insecurities, Luna couldn’t help but smile brightly as her goddaughter walked across the stage while Walt let out a noticeable holler from the crowd of applauding people. The smile on Cady’s face was radiant and made Luna’s heart swell with pride._

_The ceremony went by quickly after that. They were near the end when Luna noticed Henry get up from his seat and head into the school towards her. Alarmed, Luna quietly tiptoed off the balcony inside where she could clearly hear Henry arguing on the phone with somebody._

_And judging by his words Luna was willing to bet anything that it was Deena._

_Remaining silent, Luna approached the railing that overlooked the open foyer beneath her. Henry was standing with his back to her and attempting to keep his voice down despite the obvious frustration that Luna could hear in it. She stood there watching him, trying to figure out what it was that they were arguing about, spacing out with her own crazy ideas._

_She didn’t notice him turn and spot her before it was too late._

_His eyes were huge and his mouth parted as he lowered the phone and snapped it shut. He took a step forward and cautiously called out to her. “… Luna?”_

_Luna remained frozen in place, unsure how to proceed. It had been a solid five years since she had even seen him, let alone talked to him. What was she supposed to do?_

_That little voice in the back of her mind gave her an answer; run._

_So she took off down the hallway, hoping to find one of the school’s many exits._

_It didn’t surprise her when she heard Henry following her. “Luna wait!”_

_She took a sharp corner and came to a set of elevators. She punched the down button and pulled a small box out of her blazer pocket. A box she had prepared for the four of them, including letters as well as a graduation present for Cady._

_The elevator door opened and Luna hesitated to get inside, but only for a moment. Once she heard Henry call out for her once more she snapped out of it, set the box on the ground, and hurried inside the elevator._

_She saw Henry turn the corner just as the doors closed. As soon as she was moving she braced herself against the wall with her heart racing and her eyes shut. She hated how weak she was, how cowardice and scared she had become over the years. She hated everything she had ever done to the people who had done nothing but love her._

_Escaping Columbia University unnoticed was simple, and it wasn’t until she was back in her apartment that she finally broke down crying. She had written out page after page to the Longmire’s, expressing her love and apologies to them. But for Henry, even though Luna knew she could fill entire books with things she wanted to say, she had only managed to write down two words on a single piece of paper._

**_I’m sorry._ **

============

Another hour passed spent picking away at the clutter surrounding the shop. Luna had precisely half of the store cleaned at this point, meaning that the reopening wouldn’t be as far away as she thought it would be.

She would need some recent photos of Durant and Absaroka to showcase.

“Hey mom,” She hollered from the top of a ladder she had pulled from the storage room. She was busy picking away at the knick-knacks of clutter on a high shelf near the front of the store. “You still have my camera from high school at home, right?”

“I think so.” Thandie called from the storage room, which would soon be turned into the darkroom. “I’m pretty sure it’s up in the attic.”

“Okay.” Luna made a mental note to go looking for it when she got home. “What about my photo albums?”

“All in the attic, sweetheart.”

 _That’ll be a walk down memory lane._ She thought to herself as she tossed a bunch of old things down into a box below. The majority of her albums consisted of photos from her teenage years. A lot of them included Walt, Martha, Henry and herself.

They’d be hard to look at.

Just then Luna heard a snap and the next thing she knew she was losing balance on the ladder as it buckled out from underneath her. She didn’t even have time to swear before she was sent falling to the ground. Or at least that’s where she thought she was heading.

Instead she landed on someone else and then _they_ landed on the ground.

The other person’s arms wrapped around her upper back to catch her before hitting the floor with a burst of air escaping them. The two of them laid there for a few seconds groaning.

Luna looked up, pushed her bangs out of her face, and froze when she realized who it was that had caught her. “Uh… Hi.”

“Morning.” Henry grunted out.

Luna hurried up to her feet and offered out a hand to help him. “Are you okay? I’m really sorry about that.”

He took her hand and stood up with a winded smile. “I am fine. Are you okay?”

“Yeah uh… thanks for catching me… I guess.” She looked back at the broken ladder. “In hindsight that probably wasn’t one of my brighter ideas. That thing is probably close to thirty years old.”

“I cannot argue with that.” Henry chuckled. “There is one at the Red Pony you can borrow if you would like.”

“Thanks.” Luna brushed some hair behind her ear. “So uh, how did you even know I was here?”

He raised an eyebrow at her and waited.

It didn’t take long for things to click for Luna.

“Cady.” She let out a sigh and glared over at her phone that was sitting on the counter. “I knew she sounded too excited when I told her I was here. Were you in the same room or something?”

“You cannot blame her.” Henry said with a smile on his face. “I asked her to call after you refused to answer mine.”

Luna blinked and felt her cheeks get hot. “I didn’t-

“It is alright,” He reassured her. “I cannot say that I blame you after what happened last night.”

She crossed her arms and glanced away, noticing how he was now staring at the butterfly closures on her forehead. “That wasn’t your fault.”

“But I should have done a better job of preventing the altercation from happening in the first place.” Henry stared for a moment longer before speaking again. “So, I wish to make it up to you. How about some lunch?”

Luna looked up at him and saw the sincerity in his eyes. As much as she wanted to say yes and attempt at starting off on the right foot for a second time, a part of her was still reluctant to open herself up to her former lover.

She took a step back from him. “I appreciate it Henry but I’m really trying to get the store cleaned up and-“

Henry’s eyes suddenly went passed her to the back of the store. “Good day to you, Thandie.”

Luna spun around and saw her mother walking out from the would be darkroom. She smiled brightly at Henry before continuing to search through the pile of papers in her hands. “Good morning Henry, dear! What brings you in?”

He turned back to Luna. “I was just wondering if it would be alright for me to take your daughter to lunch?”

Luna closed her eyes and remained silent. Her mother didn’t need any more fuel to add to her fire in regard of her insistence of the two of them potentially getting back together.

However, the giant grin on Thandie’s face was obvious enough. “Why yes! I’m sure I can manage in here for a while on my own. Take as long as you’d like!”

“Thank you.” Henry smiled at her and gave a small nod of his head before shooting Luna a knowing look. “I will meet you outside.”

Luna watched after him as he walked out the front door before turning back to her mother who was still grinning like a cheesy cat. “Can you at least _try_ and be subtle about your intentions here? Honestly, your face might crack if you keep smiling that hard.”

“Oh stop it, Laluna.” Thandie tisked before turning back to her papers. “Henry is a lovely boy and it is very obvious that he still holds you in high regard after all these years.”

Luna sighed as she grabbed her purse and headed towards the door. “You’re unbelievable.”

“Have fun!” Thandie cheerfully called as the door closed.

Once outside, Luna spotted Henry’s green GMC pickup truck a few spots down from the store front. He stood on the passenger side waiting and opened the door when he saw Luna walking towards him. He smiled brightly at her and swooped his arm in an ushering motion of playful mockery. “Shall we?”

“You know, I’m sure if you asked my mother to rob a bank for you, she would.” Luna said as she climbed up into the seat.

Henry let out a chuckle and shut the door. “I am positive that that is not true.”

“You’d be surprised.” She waited for him to round the truck and get in before speaking again. “She adores you.”

“Yes, I do tend to have that effect on women.” He smirked ahead as he started the engine.

Luna rolled her eyes but couldn’t help the smile on her face. “So now that you’ve successfully kidnapped me, why don’t you tell me what you want.”

“I told you, lunch.”

“At the Busy Bee? Isn’t it going to be insanely full right about now?”

“Probably.” Henry said as he passed the restaurant and headed towards the south end of town. “Which is why I have procured another spot for us where patronage and privacy will be guaranteed.”

Luna raised an eyebrow in intrigue. “Privacy? Around here? Shocking.”

“Yes, I know.” He smiled at her. “I am just full of surprises.”

She laughed out loud and rolled down the window. Her hair was brushed back by the breeze and very suddenly Luna was reminded of why she had missed home so much. The mountain range could be clearly seen mere moments outside of Durant. It was one of the county’s highlights and one of the bigger reasons for the number of tourists that came during this time of year. It would be the perfect place to take a bunch of her pictures for the store.

The two of them road in a surprisingly comfortable silence for almost fifteen minutes. The radio played quietly in the background as Luna sat there, wondering if she should say anything. But before she could think of something to say Henry was turning off of the highway onto the road that would eventually lead into the Cheyenne reservation.

Luna knew right away where he was planning on taking her.

She smirked over at him and arched an eyebrow. “Really?”

He said nothing and kept his eyes on the road with a small smile on his face.

Luna turned back to the window and watched the multitude of colorful trees as they passed by and got closer to their destination. Roughly half a mile outside of the reservation Henry turned onto a narrow dirt road that had only cracks of sunlight breaking through the many shades of leaves above. They drove for another few minutes before the truck was stopping in front of a bush that had one small pathway leading into it.

Henry parked and shut off the engine but remained in his seat with his hands still on the steering wheel. “Here we are.”

“I can’t believe it’s still here.” Luna smiled at the array of wildflowers and weeds that covered the old, decaying sign which faintly read _Ninovan Trail_.

“Do you still remember the way?” Henry asked as he opened the driver side door.

Luna scoffed and copied his actions. “Of course I do.”

“Good.” A small cooler suddenly appeared from beneath Henry’s seat as well as an old blanket. He carried both of them in one arm while he closed the door with the other. “Then you will lead us there.”

Luna smirked at the challenge. “Happy to.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter we find out more about Luna's heritage, while things just get even more frustrating for all us slow burn fans out there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, school has started so I feel like my updates will be more spaced out now. But on that note, this one is more than 3k long!
> 
> Don't expect this every time cus its just not gonna happen lol.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

_“This is what I get for agreeing to play hide and seek on the reservation with you two.” A twelve-year-old Walt sighed as he and Henry continued to walk through the large blanket of fluffy white snow. “Are you sure she’s around here?”_

_“Would I lie to you?” Henry asked, trekking ahead of his friend._

_“I mean, you punched me on the first day we met, so anything could happen at this point.” Walt argued as he tried to mind his footing._

_Henry laughed and continued closer to their destination. “I am telling you, this is the place that Luna would be hiding.”_

_“You better not be yankin’ my chain.” Walt threatened._

_A strong December breeze shot up the ridge and sent shivers down Henry’s spine. He was thankful for the heavy winter coat that Ms. Bellamy had bought him earlier last month. Even if she wasn’t his mother, she still took care him like she was. It was something that Henry’s grandmother, Adele was also very thankful for. She worked a lot to keep the roof over their heads, and even if the two of them were getting by with the money she made, there never seemed to be enough for anything extra. Even winter coats._

_“I am not yanking your chain.” He called back to Walt as he cast a glance at the ledge above them. He smiled when he saw a flash of fuchsia pink. “Now hurry up. My grandmother is faster than you are.”_

_Walt began muttering behind him, but Henry couldn’t hear him clear enough to care. This was going to be too funny to start a fight right now._

_“How much furthe- AH!” Walt’s question died with a sudden thump._

_Henry spun around, a widespread grin on his face, as he began to laugh uncontrollably at his friend’s predicament. Walt was now buried under a large pile of snow that seemed to just sporadically fall from the sky in one giant clump._

_The cowboy hat he was wearing fell off his head when Walt shook the snow out of his face. He growled and tried to look up above from where the snow had come from. “Luna!”_

_Just then a lighthearted giggle began to fill the air and Henry had enough time to look up before he found Luna jumping off the ledge above them and rolling into the snow beside him. She immediately sprung up onto her feet, unfazed, and began dancing around the giant pile of snow._

_“Gotcha Walt!” She beamed while picking up his hat and placing it on her head._

_Walt groaned and dropped his face back into the snow. “I knew this was a bad idea.”_

_Henry and Luna high-fived at their prank’s success. “Nice job Henry! He totally fell for it!”_

_He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and smiled brightly. “I am a pretty great actor.”_

_She smiled back and plopped Walt’s hat on his head. The way she looked at him made Henry’s heart flutter. “That you are.”_

_“Yeah, yeah. You’re a match made in heaven.” Walt declared. “Now help me up!”_

============

Despite it being nearly two decades since her last trip out here, Henry was surprised by how confidently Luna led the way down the Ninovan trail. He followed her at an easy pace, watching her as she admired the sunshine peeking through the trees above them. It made his heart race to be alone with her on this path again after all this time.

“And up we go.” Luna suddenly snapped him out of his daze when she made an abrupt left turn to climb up the rock ledge. Makeshift stairs were still embedded into the bedding of the stone that the two of them could easily climb up.

Luna offered out a hand to help hoist Henry up as he attempted to do it himself with only one hand. He nodded his thanks and they continued down the mountain’s ledge that would lead up to the cavern. “I am impressed by your memory.”

She chuckled and went back to leading the way. “Why? You thought I could forget this place? Doubt it.”

“I mean, it has been a long time.” He spoke carefully.

Luna glanced over her shoulder at him and smiled. “Some things are worth remembering.”

They continued on in silence until Luna stopped in the middle of the road. Henry walked up beside her and joined in staring at the gaping hole in their way. It appeared to be made from a landslide that left a ten-foot space between them and the ledge that continued up to the cavern.

“Well that is unfortunate.” Henry said after a few moments of staring.

“Mhmm.” Luna clicked her tongue and looked up at him with that familiar grin on her face. The grin that always meant trouble. “Think we can jump it?”

Henry’s eyebrows shot up so high that they nearly disappeared beneath his hair. It took him a solid ten seconds to realize that she was kidding. “I sure hope not.”

“Then I guess this is where we stop.” Luna laughed and decided to sit down on the ledge with her feet dangling over. “So, what’s on the menu?”

Henry forwent rolling out the blanket and sat down beside her, setting the cooler in between them. “Well, how about you open it and find out.”

Luna smirked and popped open the lid. “Let’s see, we have two bottles of beer…”

She offered one out to him, which he took.

“And it appears, that we also have some kind of sandwich.” She pulled out a foil wrap and when she opened it, her head perked up. “Oh! BLT wraps! With cheese?”

Henry nodded as he pulled a bottle opener out of his jacket pocket. “With cheese.”

“Wow,” Luna swapped bottles with him so he could open the second. “It’s like you know me or something.”

He chuckled and raised his beer to hers. “Some things just never change.”

Luna gladly clinked their bottles together and they both took a drink.

They ate in silence for a few minutes before Henry got up the nerve to say what had been on his mind for the last 24 hours.

“I wanted to-“

“There’s something-“

They both stopped and stared at each other before Luna laughed and motioned for him to continue. “Sorry, you go first.”

Henry allowed himself a small smile before it faltered with his words. “I really am sorry about last night. I had no idea that Deena would be coming back so soon, let alone drunk.”

“Oh.” Luna shrugged her shoulders as she took another bite of her wrap. “It’s okay. I was kind of expecting it to be completely honest.”

Henry blinked, confused. “You were?”

“Well okay, I wasn’t planning on getting punched out on my first night back, but I knew she would stir up trouble as soon as she realized I was here.” Luna looked over at him. “Because let’s face it, she’s not exactly the biggest fan of me.”

“Yes, I know.” Henry sighed and stared down at the ground. He had heard all about it this morning when he picked Deena up from the station. The entire ride back to the Red Pony she did nothing but express how much she despised Luna and how she would bet anything that it would only be a matter of time before Luna took off again.

“You do not know that.” Henry had spoken confidently, but it was wishful thinking at best.

“No, I’m pretty sure I do.” Deena had huffed and turned to look out the window. “I give it a month, tops.”

Henry hoped with all his might that she was wrong.

“But regardless, you shouldn’t be the one apologizing. It wasn’t in anyway your fault.” Luna nudged him in the shoulder to bring him out of his thoughts. “You know that, right?”

He glanced over at her but then quickly stared back down at the foil in his hand. “Yes.”

“And it doesn’t matter how many times I say that, you’re still going to think that it is.” She nudged him again so that he would look up at her. The tiny smile on her face was so familiar, so sympathetic and sincere. Nobody ever really did understand his guilt trips quite like Luna. Even as children she had been so keen in her perception of everybody around her. A trait that she had gotten from her father no doubt. “Right?”

Henry tried to smile, a little embarrassed by how easily she had called him out. “Old habits die hard.”

Luna laughed and tossed her wrapper in the cooler. “Look, the point is, it wasn’t your fault. And the sooner you accept that, the better off you’ll be… Sometimes I think you put the weight of the world on your shoulders simply because you can’t solve all its problems.”

He listened to her carefully as she spoke. Was this a roundabout way of her telling him that her leaving wasn’t his fault? Something that he had been aching to know for the last two decades?

Before Henry could reply there came a shout from below where they sat.

Luna peered over the edge first and let out a hum. “Well, looks like Walt’s having a good day so far.”

Henry poked his head forward to find his friend chasing somebody down the trail. It would be another few moments before they passed he and Luna by. “So it would seem.”

“Best give him a hand.” Luna declared as she handed Henry her beer. “I’ll be right back.”

“Wait, what are you-“ He didn’t even have time to fully ask his question before Luna was catapulting herself off the rock ledge and down eight feet below onto the path, exactly at the right moment to tackle the stranger that Walt was chasing.

Henry hurried to collect everything and raced down to meet up with them. When he got there Walt was cuffing the stranger on the ground, while Luna stood off to the side with a winded smile on her face. It was so familiar to him, the glint in her eyes as the adrenaline rushed through her veins. “Works every time.”

Henry could only shake his head in disapproval.

“You’re getting too old for that, Bell.” Walt said as he hoisted the stranger, a scrawny white male in his late twenties, onto his feet.

“Oh like you’re one to talk.” Luna retorted with a hand on her hip. “And you’re welcome, by the way.”

Walt rolled his eyes and began leading the stranger back the way they had all originally came. “The hell are you two doing out here anyway?”

“We were in the neighbourhood.” Henry supplied when Luna shot him a quick glance.

“Uh huh.” Was all Walt said as he marched on ahead of his two friends.

Luna smirked over at Henry as they fell in behind Walt. Henry smiled back and gave her a wink.

Eventually after many turns, they all arrived back to the beginning of the trail where the vehicles were parked. Henry noticed immediately that beside Walt’s truck was another cruiser. He inwardly groaned when he realized who’s it was.

Luna did too, but more verbally. “Oh god.”

Mathias got out of his cruiser and approached them with his hands on his hips and a smug grin on his face. “Bellamy, heard you were back in town. Also heard you got your ass kicked last night at the Red Pony.”

Luna remained still with an annoyed expression on her face. “Nice to see you too Mathi _as_.”

Walt let out a snort as he swung open the back door of his Bronco. Henry did his best not to laugh when he placed the cooler and blanket in the driver seat of his own truck. He didn’t fully understand the animosity between Luna and Mathias, but it had been around for more years than Henry could count.

Mathias’ face went sour at the emphasis of his name. “Will you stop with that? We’re not kids anymore.”

“That remains to be seen.” Luna turned to Walt as he and Henry moved to rejoin them. “So what’s going on?”

“Two Cheyenne kids have gone missing.” Walt explained with a grim face.

“What?” Luna exclaimed before Henry had the chance.

“Who?” He demanded.

“Katara Longshadow and Beau Westfield.” Mathias said. “Taken from their homes last night.”

“Jesus.” Luna shot a glare back at Walt’s Bronco. “And you think that guy knows something about it?”

“Both of them.” Walt motioned to Mathias’ cruiser and that’s when Henry noticed somebody sitting in its back seat. “They were spotted lurking around the kid’s school two days ago before getting spooked by a teacher.”

“Were they taken at the same time?” Luna asked in a worrisome tone. “And how far apart did they live from each other?”

“Why the sudden interest, Bellamy?” Mathias demanded with the cross of his arms. “It’s not like you to care about anything that doesn’t revolve around your family’s melodrama.”

Henry and Walt simultaneously scowled at Mathias while Luna remained collected and arched an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“You’ve never stuck around long enough to care about anything that didn’t have a personal effect on you. What changed?” Mathias continued in a hostile tone. “Don’t tell me you finally grew a conscious.”

Suddenly Luna lurched forward but Henry was quicker. He wrapped his arms around her waist to hold her back, just like he had many times in the past.

“That’s enough.” Walt took a step forward. “Back up Mathias.”

“Sudden interest coming from a privileged, white passing, half-blood who can run away from her problems whenever she feels like it? That’s a guilty conscious if I’ve ever seen one.” Mathias smirked in satisfaction when he saw the anger on Luna’s face. “Don’t tell me you’re not thinking the same thing, Standing Bear.”

“I can assure you that I am not.” Henry seethed as he felt Luna’s grip on his sleeve tighten. “Now apologize.”

“Nah.” Mathias chuckled and began to backtrack towards his cruiser. “I think I’ll just head to the station instead. I’ll catch ya later, Bellamy. If you stick around long enough that is.”

The three of them stood there and watched Mathias drive away.

“Prick.” Luna eventually snarled.

“Don’t listen to him, Bell. You know he’s been stuck on that for years.” Walt said as he raised an eyebrow at Henry, who was still hanging onto Luna.

Henry cleared his throat and backed away, slightly embarrassed. “We should get going and let you get back to work.”

Luna gave a faint nod and put a hand on Walt’s arm. “Let us know if there’s anything we can do.”

He gave a tip of his hat and headed to the Bronco. “I will.”

After Walt was gone, Henry looked over at Luna who was still staring down the trail with a hard to read expression on her face. He hesitated before gently placing his hand on her shoulder and giving a small squeeze. “Come on.” 

Luna remained unresponsive for a few moments before giving another nod and following Henry to his truck.

============

While the drive to the trail had been peacefully quiet, the ride home was eerily suspenseful. Luna didn’t tare her eyes away from the window the entire time, getting lost in the scenery as Mathias’ words bounced around in her brain over and over again. It killed her to admit that he was right, or partially right anyway.

Before she knew it, Henry was coming to a stop in front of the photography store. She stared up at it; her new legacy. The windows still needed a good cleaning, the neon e on the open sign was out, and the moniker was completely discoloured and on the verge of falling. Luna made a mental note to get in contact with somebody to properly dispose of it tomorrow and sighed as she took off her seatbelt. “Thanks for lunch, I’ll pay you back sometime soon, I promise.”

She slipped out the door without waiting for an answer and walked a few steps towards the store front before suddenly feeling a hand shoot out to tightly grip her arm.

Luna froze her steps and looked back at him. Henry was staring right at her with determination in his eyes. He was upset by what had happened at the trail, almost as upset as she was.

She saw that now.

“Do not let Mathias get to you,” He told her, taking a step closer. “Nothing he accused you of is true.”

She glanced down at their hands. “Are you sure about that?”

“Yes, I am.” Confidence radiated from his voice, but it only made Luna’s heart hurt. “And I know you are as well.”

She shook her head. “Mathias is right. I’ve never done anything for my people, I’ve never stuck around when times got tough for them, I’ve only ever thought about myself. I’m nothing but a coward.”

“Luna you are not a coward.” Henry insisted. “You had every right to do what you did.”

She squeezed her eyes shut and tried her best to hold back tears. No, she couldn’t do this to him. She couldn’t let him forgive everything that she had done just because of Mathias’ feelings toward her. She couldn’t take that from him.

“Henry.” Luna sighed. “Don’t do this.”

“Do what?”

“This. Don’t forgive me or give me sympathy. I don’t deserve it. Not after everything I’ve done to you.” She slipped her arm out of his hold and moved to walk away from him.

But then he was grabbing her again, this time her hand, and he held it tight.

Surprised, Luna looked back at him and saw the crestfallen expression on his face. He held her gaze as tightly as he held her hand and even though he wouldn’t say anything, Luna knew that he had so much to tell her.

They stood like that for what felt like eons before Henry’s grip loosened and reluctantly disappeared from Luna’s touch. He stared down at the ground as he spoke. “Your perception has always been resilient with that of everyone but yourself.”

Then he turned around, got into his truck, and drove away. 

Luna watched him for only a few seconds before heading into the shop. Her mother wasn’t there, thank god, so Luna decided to do nothing but grab her car keys and leave, making sure to lock the front door behind her.

She drove for what seemed like hours around Absaroka county. Then as dusk began to set in, she pulled up to the reservation’s tribal cemetery and parked. Taking a deep breath Luna got out of her car and walked up the small hill to where rows and rows of crosses laid stuck in the dirt. She walked all the way to the back, back to where a giant oak tree rested amongst the dead.

The cross she stopped in front of was surrounded with age old candles. There were some half dead flowers scattered around a painted wooden box with a faded picture taped to its lid. And on the old wooden cross spelled out the name; **Atticus Strongbow.**

Luna dropped to her knees and finally released the tears. All of the tears she had been bottling up since the last time she had been here.

“Hey dad.” She eventually mumbled. “I’m sorry it’s been a while.”

The wind blew through the cemetery.

“I’ve messed up… I’ve messed up _so_ badly I don’t-“ She wiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater. “I don’t know if I can fix this. I don’t know if I deserve for this to be fixed… I don’t deserve to be Cheyenne, I’ve never done anything to prove myself to this land, to these people, I just… I wish you were here…”

Suddenly she heard a twig snap behind her.

Luna sprung to her feet in an instant to spin around. Who she found behind her took her completely off guard. She knew who he was, had heard about him from her mother and other people who had seen him before, but she had never spoken to him.

“Hector.”

The stoic giant stood a few yards away from her with the setting sun rested on his face. His expression was clear, controlled, ominous.

Eventually he spoke. “Blood is blood. And yours is Cheyenne.”

Luna stood paralyzed across from him, but eventually moved to wipe more tears from her face. His words may have been brief, but they definitely made her feel better. “Thank you.”

He offered only a nod of the head before turning around to walk away. Leaving Luna alone in the cemetery to be with her father, who she was now confident was watching out for her.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's goddaughter/godmother bonding time at the Red Pony! (This should go well)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted Luna's relationship with Cady to be an important factor in this story and not just some random decision. Enjoy!

Three days passed.

Nothing came of the missing children, aside from the fact that another one disappeared. His name was Shawn Klaver and he was white, which meant that people were actually worried about the kidnappings now.

Luna shut off her car and walked up to the entrance to the Red Pony. There were posters of all three children hanging around the door, but more of Shawn than of Katara or Beau. She sighed as she pushed the door open, brushing the thought of the children aside for a later time.

It was fairly busy inside since it was a lunch rush on Friday, but not busy enough where Luna couldn’t find an empty two chair table in the far corner by the kitchen. She hurried over to claim the spot and waited patiently for Cady to arrive. Having taken on a new client, Cady’s free time had gotten pretty sparse for the past couple of days. No time had been allowed for her and Luna to meet up for dinner, so they settled on lunch instead.

Luna did her best to avoid looking at the bar once she got herself seated. After all, she hadn’t seen or spoken to Henry since that day outside of her store, so to say that the air around them had turned awkward once again was an understatement. However, despite herself, she glanced up and spotted him at the far end of the bar talking to Deena. She had her chin rested in a hand and was smiling up at Henry with dreamy eyes. He was standing nearby and smiled at something she must have said.

Luna turned away immediately when she saw somebody approaching her. But it wasn’t Cady, it was Jess, coming to set down two waters on the table. “Hey slugger.”

“Hey.” Luna smiled and stood up to give the woman a hug. While the two had never been insanely close friends, they had known each other since high school and used to hang around together.

And Luna needed all the friends she could get at this point.

Jess hugged her back. “It’s good to see you! I mean, actually see you. I know we saw each other the other night before, yenno.” She nudged her head slightly towards the bar where Deena was sitting.

Luna scoffed. “Yeah, that night could have ended better.”

“Quite the commotion for your first night back in town, that’s for sure.” Jess chuckled and tossed her server towel onto her shoulder. “So I saw that you’re fixing up your mom’s shop. Does that mean you’re sticking around?”

“Yeah.” Luna answered truthfully. “I think it’s about time that I came home to stay.”

“Well I’m glad.” Jess smiled at her. “It’ll be good to see you more often, and I know I’m not the only one who thinks so.”

“Oh?” Luna raised an eyebrow at her. “Why do you say that so confidently?”

Jess gave her arm a gentle pat. “C’mon Lune, I’m not stupid. Seeing how Henry reacted to you getting hurt the other night was all the evidence I needed.”

“Needed for what?”

“To realize that he’s still crazy about you.”

It was jarring to hear those words and embarrassing for how it took Luna to process them.

She finally snapped out of it and shook her head. “No he’s not.”

Jess chuckled and picked up her tray to tuck under her arm. “You know, the more you two deny it the more excruciating it’ll be for the rest of us to watch.”

“Wait? The rest of us?” Luna called after her as she walked away. “Rest of us who?”

Her outburst caused the few tables around her to look up in confusion, as well as Henry and Deena from the bar. It didn’t surprise Luna that Deena was pissed to see her, but the look on Henry’s face was one of startlement.

Flustered, Luna quickly spun around and sat back down.

A few more minutes passed before Cady arrived. She hurried over to the far corner and placed a hand on her godmother’s shoulder. “Hey, sorry I’m late. I hope you weren’t waiting long.”

Luna stood up to hug her. “Not at all, is everything okay at work?”

“Oh yeah,” Cady sat down across from her. “Nothing I can’t handle, it’s just been a lot of stuff to go through in only a few days’ time.”

“I can understand that.” Luna said before there was the sudden slamming of a door.

They both looked over at the bar and that’s when Luna noticed that the door to Henry’s office was now closed, and he and Deena were gone. Jess caught her eye after doing some staring herself and only shook her head at Luna.

“Uh…” Cady raised an eyebrow. “Did I miss something?”

Luna squeezed her eyes shut and sighed. “No, but I suppose me even being in here is enough cause for Deena to get her back up.”

“Maybe she’s scared that you’ll actually beat her in a fair fight.” Cady mumbled as she settled into her seat.

“Well whatever it is I don’t want to talk about it. I want to talk about you.” Luna rested her hands on top of Cady’s and squeezed tight. “It’s officially time for us to catch up.”

So the two of them placed their food orders and proceeded to do just that.

============

“Make her leave.”

“I am not making her leave. She is having lunch with Cady, nothing more.”

“I don’t care, I don’t like her being in here. Make her leave!”

Henry sighed. He didn’t want to have this argument. _Again_. “You are being unreasonable.”

“Oh, _I’m_ being unreasonable? How could you say that?” Deena demanded with her hands firmly on her hips. “After what she’s done _I’m_ the one who’s being unreasonable? Hah.”

“Luna has done nothing wrong.” Henry crossed his arms over his chest. “Besides, you are the one who decided to pick a fight with her.”

Deena swatted a hand at him. “I’m not talking about that! I’m talking about us! Ever since she’s gotten here you’ve been different, just like you always are when she’s around!”

“I do not-“

“You still love her, don’t you?” She demanded. “You still love her, and you’ve just been using me this entire time as some kind of temporary replacement!”

Henry glared at her. “Is that really what you think?”

Deena glared right back. “Well you’re not denying it.”

“Because it is preposterous!” He exclaimed before lowering his voice. “Of course it is not true.”

Deena stood there staring at him for a few more seconds before her bottom lip quivered out and she let out a sniffle. “I’m sorry baby, It’s just… It’s force of habit for me to be like this… after what happened with Marcus.”

Henry could understand that. Her ex-fiancé was anything but an upstanding citizen.

And yet.

“I do not know how many times I have to tell you the same thing.” Henry sighed but took a step towards her. “And I am sorry if I did anything to make you think otherwise.”

“It’s alright, I’m just glad that I didn’t have to leave for Salt Lake angry. It would’ve ruined my edge for sure.” Deena met him halfway and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. “I love you.”

Henry stood there and let her kiss him again. “I love you too.”

============

Their food was served and nearly gone around the time that the door to Henry’s office opened.

Luna forced herself not to look and instead kept her eyes on her empty plate.

Cady on the other hand, couldn’t resist. “She looks happy.”

The heels of Deena’s shoes clipped against the wooden floor, indicating that she was heading towards the front entrance. Luna finally glanced up once the noise was practically gone and found Henry standing in the doorway of his office staring after Deena with a smear of lipstick on his cheek. His face was placid, but his eyes were tired.

Luna picked up the meaning behind his expression quickly. “He doesn’t.”

Just then he glanced over at their table, finding both Luna and Cady staring back at him. He held Luna’s gaze for a moment before turning around and heading back into his office, closing the door behind him.

“I hope he’s okay.” Cady frowned back at the last few fries on her plate. “They must have been arguing.”

Luna turned away from the door. “Does that happen a lot?”

Cady shrugged. “Often enough. They never argue out here but sometimes it gets pretty loud from the office.”

Luna said nothing and took a sip of her drink. A part of her still didn’t understand how Henry could subject himself to someone as insensitive and manipulative as Deena, but it wasn’t her place to question it. Not after all the shit she herself had pulled.

“But anyway.” Cady sighed and finished off her fries. “You were saying?”

“Oh!” Luna choked out as she set down her glass and reached for her purse. “Your birthday present!”

“You didn’t have to get me anything.” Cady chuckled lightly and brushed the salt off her fingers.

“Of course I did.” Luna pulled out a small box and set it down in the middle of the table. “You’re the only child I’ve ever gotten to spoil and I’m never giving that up.”

Cady said nothing as she reached for the box with a small smile on her face. She opened it, stared for a few moments, then looked back at Luna. “Uh…”

Luna smiled and tightly clasped her hands on her lap. “Over the years, everything I’ve ever bought you, all the things I’ve sent from the various locations that I’ve been to… They were to make up for the fact that I was never really there. That I had left you and didn’t realize it until it was far too late.”

Cady remained silent and stared back down at the box. Giving Luna too long to think back to the day she had first left Durant.

============

_Packing only a single bag, Luna quickly rushed out the front door of her mother’s house. The last thing she needed was to be caught on her way back to the spot where she was catching her ride out of town. Away from her family, away from Henry, away from everything she had ever known._

_Suddenly Martha’s car pulled up and Luna stopped dead in her tracks._

_“What in gods name do you think you’re doing?” Martha demanded as soon as she had slammed the driver side door shut. “You think running away from this will help anything? Just go talk to him!”_

_“I’m done talking to him, Marty!” Luna shot back. “He’s made his choice, and so I’m making mine. End of story.”_

_Martha sighed and covered her face with her hand. “I can’t believe you are being so stubborn. That’s always the issue with you two! You can never actually talk about your own damn feelings!”_

_Luna sighed. She was very much aware of the history that she and Henry shared in regards of locking away their emotions, and quite frankly she wasn’t in the mood to revisit it. “Look, if you’re done judging me, I’ve got a ride to catch.”_

_She went to move around her friend, but when she did, Martha was sliding right into her line of sight once more. “He’s not the only one you’re walking out on, you know.”_

_Luna rolled her eyes. “You’ll get along fine without m-.”_

_“I wasn’t talking about me.” Martha cut her off and glanced over her shoulder._

_Luna followed her and felt her heart sink at the sight of a young Cady sitting in the back seat of the car. She had her head down, clearly reading a book, and seemed to be unaware of what was really going on._

_Guilt gutted Luna’s stomach and it took everything she had to look away from her goddaughter. “She’s better off without me. She deserves someone who will always be there for her, someone who can help her make good decisions in life. And we both know I’m not the right person for the job.”_

_So she walked away despite every inch of her being telling her not to; Despite Martha hollering after her, despite the thought of never seeing Cady again, despite the thought of Henry completely forgetting her._

_She walked away._

============

“So I want to fix it. All of it.” Luna cleared her thoughts and continued to speak her peace. “I’m going to be there for you from now on. As often as you need me to be, no matter what. Because I love you and you’re extremely important to me.”

Tears fell from Cady’s face as she sat there listening. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

Luna smiled and stood up. “Come here.”

She wrapped Cady in a hug and held her tightly. “I love you so much. And I’m sorry that I didn’t come back sooner.”

Cady buried her face in the crook of Luna’s neck and held back just as tight. “I love you too.”

Luna kissed her on the head and smoothed over her hair. “So that’s why I decided that this year, your birthday present is going to be quality time with me in the shop. We can look through photo albums, I can teach you how the dark room works. We can do literally anything that you want.”

Cady smiled and wiped away her drying tears. “I appreciate the card very much, it’s very creative.”

Luna laughed and glanced down at the hand drawn card that was sitting inside the box. Not her finest work, but the point was made all the same. “I’m glad. So whenever you have a free weekend or night that you’re not busy, just call me up and we’ll make something work, okay?”

Cady nodded and hugged her again. “Thank you Luna. I don’t know what to say.”

“Say that you’ll stop being an accomplice in the scheme of everyone trying to get me and Henry together.” Luna replied jokingly. “I know you were with him when I called you the other day, you minx.”

Cady burst out laughing and backed away from the embrace. “I’m sorry! I couldn’t help it! He was just so upset, I had to.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Luna swatted a hand. “Well from now on I can talk to him myself, okay?”

Cady grinned at her. “Yeah right. I’m sure that’ll work out well. Not.”

“Alright.” Luna rolled her eyes but smiled regardless. “Don’t you have some place to be? Like maybe your job?”

Cady laughed again and reached for her purse to grab her wallet. “Fine, I see how it is.”

“No, no, no.” Luna pushed the bills away when Cady tried to hand them to her. “I’ve got this.”

“Are you sure? I really don’t-“

“Nope.” She cut Cady off. “My treat. I insist.”

Cady smiled as she put her wallet away and picked the small box up off the table. “Alright, but I’m buying next time.”

“It’s a deal.” Luna spread her arms out to give another hug. “I hope the rest of your day goes well, and I’ll talk to you soon okay?”

“Okay.” Cady hugged her back. “I love you.”

“I love you too kiddo.”

After Cady had left, Luna walked up to the bar to pay Jess for their meal. While Jess was getting change for the bills, Luna glanced over at the door to Henry’s office. She wondered what he was doing in there, and if she should try knocking to see if he was okay.

Suddenly the door opened and Henry walked out. The lipstick smear was gone from his cheek, but he still looked tired.

Their eyes met immediately and Luna felt her body go stiff. Neither of them backed down or even blinked until Jess was coming back over with some change. It probably didn’t take much for her to figure out what was going on.

“Uh, here you go Luna.”

Luna blinked and turned to take the money, leaving a tenner on the bar for Jess to keep. “Thanks Jess.”

She glanced up at Henry one more time before turning around and heading out the front door.

============

“Oh _come on_.” Jess groaned as soon as Luna had left the building. “You’re killing me here Henry.”

Her voice snapped him out of the haze of watching Luna leave and he moved towards the cash register for what he had come to get; his reading glasses. “Do not start.”

“Because you already know what I’m going to say? Good. So do it!” Jess retorted, coming up beside him to put her tip in her cup. “Save us all the agony of waiting.”

“All of us who?” Henry demanded. “This concerns none of you.”

She chuckled and patted his shoulder. “Doesn’t mean that we’re not stuck watching you two dance around each other. Just talk to her.”

He shook his head and headed back towards his office. “I have already tried that.”

“I mean _really_ talk to her.” Jess called after him. “Cut to the chase, tell her how you feel!”

“Goodbye Jessica.” Was the only reply he gave before closing the door.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luna meets Jacob Nighthorse, in probably the oddest way possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so this and the next chapter were originally one big chapter but it was over 4k so I decided to have mercy on you guys and split it into two. (I blame all the damn dialogue I have ugh) Hope you guys like it and don't worry you won't have to wait long until chapter 8 is done!

Absaroka’s landscapes were some of the best in Wyoming. Between the rolling hills, the rushing rivers, and the breathtaking mountains, Luna had plenty to choose from when it came to possible pictures to showcase. She continued to trek up one of the hills just south of Durant, making sure her camera was safely secure in its bag on her shoulder. She had yet to find a perfect shot for the area, but she knew that it would come soon enough. After what felt like hours of climbing, she found herself at the top of the hill which overlooked a field of wildflowers below. Beyond it was a cove of trees.

Luna smiled and made her way down. The rainbow of colorful leaves looked promising.

She pulled out her camera and began taking test shots, trying to figure out angle, lighting, the usual things, as she got closer and closer. After taking a handful of them she kept walking through the field, shooting some close ups, and turning around to take a wide shot of the entire field.

She was too busy admiring her photos that she didn’t notice somebody sneaking up behind her.

“Excuse me, miss?”

Luna spun around to find two men approaching her. They were both wearing the same uniform and didn’t look to be in a friendly mood. “Yes?”

“You’re on private property. May I ask what you’re doing here?” One of them asked.

She motioned with her camera. “Just taking pictures, I didn’t realize that I was on private property.”

“Gonna have to take that.” The second said in a harsher tone. He reached out to take Luna’s camera from her when she took a few steps back to avoid him.

“Now hold on here, this is just a misunderstanding. I told you I didn’t know that I was on private property. I’ll just leave.” She defended as she moved to put her camera away.

“Can’t let you do that until we clear it with the boss that you’re not a threat.” The first told her.

She did the strap up on her camera bag and arched her eyebrow at him. Was this guy serious? “What kind of a threat do I look like?”

He went to speak but must have thought better of his words before shaking his head and motioning with his hand. “That’s not up to me to decide, now raise your hands and come here.”

Luna scoffed and rolled her eyes but did as she was told. She took careful steps towards the men with her arms slightly raised and let them lead her through the trees. One in front of her with Two behind her. She glanced back at him every once in a while, feeling his eyes constantly staring over her. Eventually they came to the backyard of a very fancy looking house and stopped on a pool deck.

“Go get the boss.” Two told One. “I’ll stay with her.”

One nodded and headed up the steps of a patio, leaving Luna alone with Two.

He spun her so that she was facing him. “Spread your legs so I can search you.”

Luna raised her eyebrows in appall. “Not happening.”

“Do it now, before I make you do it.” He reached to grab her thigh.

However, before he could even touch her, Luna had a hold on his wrist and was ducking under his arm to twist it behind his back.

“Pervert.” She seethed before shoving him forward onto the concrete that surrounded the pool.

His face smacking against the ground masked the entrance of One and another man from the house.

One pulled out a gun immediately and pointed it at Luna. “Freeze!”

She just stared at them, unintimidated. The house owner appeared to be Cheyenne, which took Luna by surprise.

“Arthur that isn’t necessary.” The man told him with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans. “Go help Roger.”

Luna watched the scene unfold, trying her best not to look smug as Roger embarrassingly pushed himself up off the ground. His nose was now bleeding and he looked ready to kill her, but all he did was move to stand angrily at Arthur’s side. “She was trespassing.”

“I was not.” Luna addressed the owner. “I didn’t even know that I was on your property.”

“She wouldn’t surrender her camera either.” Arthur chimed in.

“Because they had no right to look at it.” She continued to ignore them.

The house owner smiled despite the frustrations of his security detail. He turned to them both. “You two are free to leave. Go get yourself cleaned up, Roger.”

With blood dribbling down the front of his uniform, Roger glared back at Luna one last time before they turned to leave. “Yes mister Nighthorse.”

Luna offered a condescending wave as they headed towards the front of the house.

“I would like to apologize for their aggression.” Nighthorse said as he descended the patio stairs towards her. “They can be a bit much sometimes.”

“I would say so.” She slowly approached him when he stopped halfway across the pool yard. “You may want to look into obtaining some more decent ones since one of them was about to assault me.”

“I will take that into consideration, miss?” He waited for her to answer.

“Luna.” She replied. “Luna Bellamy.”

He extended a hand. “Jacob.”

She shook it. “Well this has been an _interesting_ interaction, Jacob. But I think I’d better get going.”

She hadn’t taken two steps before he was calling after her. “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you doing out here so far that you didn’t realize where you were?”

Luna turned around and looked at him, he had taken another step towards her. “I’m a photographer. I have a store in Durant that I’m opening soon and needed some pieces to showcase.”

He gave a nod of understanding. “I see, well I hope you succeed. I think it will be good for Durant to see things from a Cheyenne’s point of view for a change.”

She raised an eyebrow. “How do you-“

Jacob smirked. “Thandie Bellamy and Atticus Strongbow? I’ve heard the stories that surrounded your parents.”

“Ah.” Luna sighed and closed her eyes for a long few seconds. “It seems like I’ll never escape that.”

He chuckled. “There’s no shame in it. My childhood wasn’t exactly that of a normal Cheyenne either. You learn to ignore the scrutiny.”

“Easier said than done, especially in my case.” She tried to leave once more. “I’ll be sure to steer clear of your invisible property line the next time I’m around, Jacob.”

He chuckled again. “Or you could always just use the front door. Maybe stay longer next time?”

Luna glanced back at him over her shoulder and found herself smiling at the flattery. “All because I got the better of one of your guards?”

The smile on Jacob’s face grew. “Call me intrigued.”

“Okay, intrigued.” She tossed a wave over her shoulder. “I’ll see you around.”

“Sooner rather than later I hope.” He replied.

Luna chuckled and began her decent off of the pool deck to head back down to the cover of trees she had previously been at. She hadn’t made it far when she stopped dead in her tracks at an alarming sight. “Jacob!”

It was a young Cheyenne boy, no older than six, stumbling through some bushes. His face was covered in what Luna hoped to be dirt, he had a few cuts on his arms, and he was crying. It was Beau Westfield.

Luna dropped her camera bag and hurried towards him, she heard Jacob running behind her as well.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” She knelt down in front of him and started to check him over. Aside from the cuts on his arms he didn’t appear to be hurt. “Are you Beau?”

The little boy managed to nod his head as he furiously wiped at the tears on his face. It had little effect since new ones were replacing them seconds later.

Jacob was kneeling beside Luna in the next moment, shrugging off his sweater to put around the boy. “Are you hurt, Beau?”

He shook his head. “I-I want my mommy!”

“We’re going to take you to her okay? It’s alright.” Luna tried to reassure him before she glanced over at Jacob. “We need to take him to the Tribal Police, now.”

He nodded in agreement. “I’ll drive. Let’s go.”

“Okay, come on sweetheart, we’re going to see your mommy.” Luna stood and picked Beau up. “Everything’s going to be alright.”

Jacob led them to his garage where the three of them climbed into a SUV. Luna sat in the back seat right next to Beau, doing her best to comfort him as she pulled out her phone. “Everything’s okay buddy. You’re safe now.”

He clung to her arm and continued to quietly weep.

Luna dialed in the police stations number and anxiously waited for somebody to pick up.

“What do you want, Bellamy?”

“Not the time Mathias.” She shot at him. “I’ve found Beau Westfield.”

It was quiet for a second. “What? You’re sure?”

“Yes I’m sure. We’re on our way to the station right now with him.”

“Okay, I’ll uh-” He sounded scattered. “I’ll get the Westfield’s here asap. I’ll get someone from the clinic to come check him too.”

“Good. We’ll be there in ten minutes or so.” Luna said before hanging up the phone.

She reached down to brush Beau’s hair out of his face when she realized that she should probably call Walt too. Except the caveman didn’t own a cellphone, which means she’d have to play phone tag in order to find him.

With a sigh she dialed in the station’s number. No answer. Everybody must have been out.

Luna closed her eyes and thought about where he could possibly be…. Then it hit her.

She bit her lip and dialed in the number for the Red Pony.

After two rings he answered. “It is a beautiful day at the Red Pony and continual soiree.”

“Henry, it’s Luna.”

He must have sensed the urgency in her voice. “Luna? What is it? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. Walt wouldn’t happen to be there would he?”

“Yes he is here. Is something the matter?”

“I’ve found Beau Westfield.” She looked down and saw that Beau had finally stopped crying. The poor kid was probably exhausted from doing so. “And I’m currently in route to the Tribal police station. I know Walt will probably want to be there.”

“You found-“ Henry cut himself off and fell quiet, as if he was processing what she had just told him. “Okay. We will be there as soon as we can. Have the Westfield’s been told?”

“Yeah, I just got off the phone with Mathias, he’s taking care of it.”

“Okay.” Silence again. “Okay, we will be there soon.”

“See you then.” Luna hung up and let out a sigh.

Now all that was left to do was wait.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Beau rescued, what's the next move?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aka chapter 7 part 2. Being that this was originally one with the last chapter, I’m not technically breaking my flashback pattern. Hope you guys like it!

Ten minutes later Jacob was pulling up to the station. Luna got out, picked up Beau and the three of them rushed inside. Mathias was there waiting for them, along with a medic from the nearby clinic.

“The Westfield’s are on their way.” Mathias greeted, focusing on Beau. “How is he?”

Luna turned around so that Mathias could see Beau’s face. Almost immediately Beau hid himself in the crook of her neck. “He was crying when we found him but stopped on the way here. I think he’s tired more than anything else.”

“We checked him over and it doesn’t appear that he’s injured save for some cuts made by the bushes he was running through.” Jacob added, showing off one of his arms. “They don’t look too deep.”

The medic turned towards a first aid kit he had brought and began to pull out some bandages as Mathias continued asking questions. “So how did you find him?”

“He came in from the back side of my property.” Jacob explained. “Luna saw him first and once we realized who he was we brought him here.”

Mathias raised an eyebrow at her. “And what were you doing on his property?”

Luna glared back at him. “You really want to do this right now?”

He shrugged. “It’s a fair question.”

“She stumbled onto my property by accident.” Jacob interjected, noticing the hostility between the two of them. “It was just a misunderstanding and we were in the middle of clearing it up when Beau wandered in.”

“I see.” Mathias mumbled, eyeing Luna up a second longer before the front door suddenly sprung open. In ran two young adults who looked absolutely terrified. The woman began to cry as soon as she saw Beau in Luna’s arms.

Luna immediately handed him over and let the Westfield’s be reunited with their son. She took a step back and told Mathias. “Walt’s on his way, I’m going outside to wait for him.”

He said nothing but gave a nod of his head as he and the medic watched over the family. She headed out the front door and leaned up against the side of the building, taking a deep breath and looking up into the sky.

As good as she felt about finding one of the missing kids, it only made her worry that much more about the other two. Katara was seven years old, but Shawn was only four. It hurt her heart to imagine either of them wandering aimlessly through Absaroka’s wilderness by themselves.

“You okay?” Jacob asked a few seconds later, causing Luna to look over at him. She hadn’t realized that he had followed her outside.

“Yeah.” She straightened herself up and crossed her arms. “Just taking a breather.”

“He’ll be fine.” Jacob moved to stand beside her. “It’s a good thing that you recognized him so quickly.”

“I’m just glad that he’s okay.” Luna sighed. “But it makes me even more worried about the other two.”

Jacob placed a hand on her shoulder, which she immediately noticed. “They’ll be found.”

“I hope so.” She brushed some hair out of her face and gave him a small smile. “But talk about an odd first meeting, don’t you think?”

He chuckled. “I didn’t mind it. Two good things came out of it, so I count it as a win.”

Luna rolled her eyes and looked up the road just in time to see Walt’s Bronco approaching the station. She wasn’t surprised to see Henry in the passenger seat either.

Jacob lowered his hand when he saw Walt and Henry exit the vehicle and Luna cringed inwardly. She knew they had both seen it.

“Where is he?” Walt spoke first.

“Inside with Mathias and his parents.” Luna approached them both.

“Is he unharmed?” Henry asked her.

“Except for some cuts on his arms.” She explained. “But we’re pretty sure those came from wandering around the woods.”

Walt nodded and glanced over at Jacob. “And what brings you here, Nighthorse?”

Jacob shrugged. “He was found on my property. I drove both he and Luna here.”

“Well if that’s all then maybe you should head home.” Walt told him bluntly. “If we need anything from you, we’ll be sure to get in touch.”

Luna glanced over at Walt and Henry who both seemed to have hard expressions on their faces. Jacob picked up on it almost immediately and took a step back from the circle they had formed. “Fine.”

He opened the door of his SUV and re-approached with Luna’s camera bag in hand. He held it out and kept his gaze on her the entire time. “You know where to find me.”

She gave him a slight nod and the three of them watched as he drove off.

“He was just trying to help.” Luna said after Jacob was gone.

“I doubt that.” Walt muttered as he headed for the station’s front door. “Jacob Nighthorse’s only interest is to help himself.”

Luna raised an eyebrow after him and glanced back at Henry. “Is there something I should know about him?”

“Yeah. Stay away from him.” Walt turned around and pointed at her. “He’s bad news.”

Luna went to speak but closed her mouth when Walt spun around to head into the station. She rolled her eyes and followed Henry, who held the door for her.

Once inside the Westfield’s, Mathias, and Walt all moved to an interrogation room, leaving Henry and Luna alone in the lobby.

“Why were you on Nighthorse’s property?” Henry asked her after a few minutes of silence.

Luna sighed and rested her head against the back of the chair. Her camera bag sat in the chair beside her and she gave it a gentle pat. “I was there because I was out taking pictures and accidentally stumbled over his treeline. I had no idea that I had done it until I was almost assaulted by his security.”

He furrowed his eyebrows together. “Until _what_?”

“Don’t worry, I took care of it. But the main point is that I wasn’t there intentionally, which I’m getting the feeling is a bad thing, for some reason.” She rolled her neck to look over at him. “Do I want to know?”

Henry leaned back in the chair so that he was closer to her. “It is a long story. But Jacob’s casino was a big issue for Walt and Martha before she died. She was protesting its construction on the accusation that it would bring nothing but violence to the county.”

“Wait, _he_ owns that casino?” Guilt rushed into Luna’s stomach and she felt like she was going to puke. She let out a groan as she covered her face with her hands. “Goddamnit I’m such an idiot!”

“You did not know.”

“But I should have!” She mumbled, running a hand through her hair in frustration. “How could I have not known that?”

Henry looked over at her with a passive expression and didn’t give an answer. But he didn’t have to.

“Right.” Luna leaned forward and continued to hide her face. “Because I haven’t been around enough to care.”

“I did not say that.”

“Your eyes did.” She gave him a mere glance before turning back to the floor. “I can still read your expressions, Henry. Quite clearly.”

It went quiet again as the sound of footsteps entered the lobby. Luna looked up and saw Walt and Mathias heading towards them. She stood up first and Henry did the same a few seconds later. “Well?”

“He’s okay,” Mathias spoke first. “The medic’s checking him over as we speak but Beau says that nothing was… done to him while he was being held.”

Luna blinked. “That’s a relief, but odd. So he and the others weren’t kidnapped by a pedophile then?”

“It could still be possible, but the profile’s not looking like it.” Mathias shook his head.

“Did he give you anything useful?” Henry asked.

Walt nodded and put his hands on his hips. “Doesn’t remember much about where he and Katara were kept, except that it was in an old cabin and on a place called Mezzora Hill.”

“Mezzora Hill?” Luna echoed. “Where’s that?”

“No idea.” Walt shrugged and glanced at Henry. “Haven’t heard the name before, I take it you haven’t either?”

“I cannot recall, no.” Henry sighed. “So what now?”

“Well after he’s been checked over and given the go ahead, Beau’s parents are taking him home.” Said Mathias. “Other than that, we need to start looking for this Mezzora Hill. It’s the only lead we have.”

“And we need to hurry.” Walt headed towards the door. “Those kids may not have a lot of time.”

With an acknowledging look to Mathias, Henry and Luna followed him. The three of them piled into Walt’s Bronco and began to head in the direction that Luna had parked her car earlier in the day.

“Why would you kidnap children and hold them with no intention of hurting them?” Walt asked after they were a few miles away.

“Ransom?” Henry offered. “But that may not be the case. Beau could just be the only one uninjured.”

“It’s also been what, almost a week now? Why is he holding them for such a long time and not doing anything with them?” Luna sat forward so that she could be included in the conversation. “Maybe he’s holding them for someone else.”

“But why for such a long time?” Walt wondered. “You would have to keep up their hygiene, feed them, keep a constant eye on them, and for what?”

The three of them fell quiet again.

“Wait, you said that he only remembers Katara being there, right?” Luna tapped Walt on the shoulder as she asked.

“Yeah, that’s right.” He looked over at her. “Why?”

“Which means Shawn must have been an afterthought.” Henry concluded, catching onto what she was saying. “And must have been taken after Beau escaped.”

“So someone wanted a child of each gender to be held for who knows how many days. One escapes, they have to go and get another one.” Walt said and drifted off. A few seconds later he was picking up his radio. “Ferg, look into any nearby sex offenders that are close to getting a release date from their sentences.”

“On it, Sherriff.” Came the reply a few seconds later.

“The arrangement must have been made inside the prison.” Henry said. “A very unwise place to do it.”

“But not impossible.” Walt replied. “At least we have something to go on now besides this place that none of us have ever heard of.”

“Which seems very unlikely since we practically lived out here when we were kids.” Luna mumbled as her car came into view. “Unless it’s some new thing that none of us know about.”

“I believe that is a fair assumption.” Henry said while looking out the window. “Things can change very quickly when you are not looking.”

Luna felt the jab hit her right in the gut and she closed her eyes to stop herself from saying anything else. The Bronco came to a stop on the side of the road behind her car and Walt put it in park before turning to Luna. “You did good today Bell, but I mean it, stay away from Nighthorse.”

She rolled her eyes and grabbed her bag before sliding out the back door. “It’s funny how you two still think you’re the boss of me after all these years.”

She slammed the door shut before anything else could be said and walked around the Bronco to her car, pulling out her keys as she did. She placed her camera bag in the passenger seat and when she turned to close the door she could see both Henry and Walt watching her.

Luna leered at them, particularly Henry, for a second before heading to the driver’s side and taking off down the road. She had no intentions of getting too close to Jacob for Martha’s sake, but they didn’t have to know that.

============

“What the hell was that?” Walt asked as the two of them watched Luna take off in her car.

Henry turned away from the road to look at his friend. “What?”

“You know what I’m talking about.” Walt leaned back in his seat. “Did she _really_ deserve that?”

“It… kind of slipped out.” Henry sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

He couldn’t stop thinking about the way that Jacob was watching Luna back at the station. How intrigued he looked, how personalized he thought he felt towards her.

For some reason it hadn’t occurred to Henry that she may be interested in other people besides himself. Or if she was even interested in him _at all_. It made his head spin if he thought about it too hard.

Walt let out a grumble and put the Bronco in drive. “I swear if I have to lock you two in a room again so that you can finally dish out your issues, I’m not gonna be happy about it.”

“That was Martha, not you.” Henry snapped but thought back to the moment Walt was talking about regardless.

============

_Luna stood across the room from him leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and a glaring black eye. Henry was mirroring her action except he was pacing on the opposite side._

_Neither of them had spoken in ten minutes._

_“How long do you plan on keeping us in here?” Luna finally hollered up the stairs of Walt’s basement._

_“Until you two make up!” Martha shouted back through the door. “Not a moment sooner!”_

_“What if we decide to rip apart the barricade on the old door down here?” Luna asked._

_“Or what about the window?” Henry supplied, pointing to the small hatch above the washing machine._

_“Oh my god.” Martha groaned. “Just talk!”_

_Henry saw a smirk slide onto Luna’s face before she turned back to glare at him. “So?”_

_“So?” He echoed._

_“Are you going to apologize for yelling at me?”_

_“No.” He shot back. “Quite the opposite really.”_

_“Hah. Not happening.” She turned away and wrapped her arms tighter around herself. “I don’t regret anything, so I have nothing to apologize for.”_

_“You-“ Henry growled out in frustration. “Luna you were arrested!”_

_“Barely.”_

_“Sherriff Connolly was this close to holding you overnight!”_

_“I could have handled it.”_

_“And for what?! What was the point in starting a fight in a_ white man’s _bar!?” Henry huffed. “They could have killed you!”_

_“Well you’re the one who just let them talk to you like that and walk away.” She retorted, standing up right and pointing a finger at him. “You can’t just let them walk all over you Henry! Or else they’ll keep on doing it for the rest of your life!”_

_“And you need to control your temper or else you will be dead by the time you are twenty-five!” Henry exclaimed before covering his eyes that were starting to well up with tears. He didn’t want her to see him crying again._

_It was quiet for a moment before he heard footsteps approaching him. “Henry… Is that why you’re so upset about this?”_

_He removed his hand but kept his eyes sealed shut. “I… I do not want to lose you I- I cannot imagine my life without you Luna and the thought of you leaving-“_

_He felt her soft hands cup both sides of his face a moment later. “Henry. Look at me.”_

_It took a second, but eventually he did._

_Luna was there with that sweet smile on her face as she wiped away the tears in his eyes. “I’m not going anywhere. You won’t lose me until we’re both old and grey and have lived full and happy lives.”_

_Henry tried to smile for her, but it faltered. “How can you be so sure?”_

_“Because I know we’re both too stubborn for it to end any other way.” She leaned up on her tip toes so that she was inches away from his face. “And you’re right about my temper. I need to stop being so careless. I had no idea that it scared you so much.”_

_He held onto one of her wrists tightly. “It terrifies me.”_

_“And I’m sorry about that.” Luna kissed his nose. “I promise I’ll try harder to keep it under control.”_

_Henry nodded and kissed her lips. “Thank you.”_

_She kissed him again. “I love you.”_

_“I love you too.” He said as he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight._

_They held onto each other for a few minutes before Luna stepped back. “You know, even if we’ve made up, we should sneak out the window anyway.”_

_Henry gave a quiet laugh and followed her over to the washing machine._

============

“I am afraid it may be too late, Walt.” Henry sighed as he stared out the window. “Perhaps it has been too long. Perhaps too much damage has been done.”

“Why was I stuck being the optimist in this friendship?” Walt muttered. “C’mon Henry, I’ve never known you to give up so easily. Especially on someone you love so much.”

Henry shot his friend a look but said nothing to dispute the accusation. Instead he turned back to the window and continued to watch the landscapes pass them by.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will wandering down memory lane help Luna find what she's looking for?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a year huh?  
> (Rae it's March)
> 
> So in case it wasn't obvious, I too have been quarantined like the rest of the world, it's been a whirl wind of a ride to get here too. But now I am, and I'm too overwhelmed with school and all the news and social media crap that I haven't been writing ANYTHING. So yeah, this chapter's kinda short, but hopefully I'll be able to dish out the next few at a faster pace now that I have the time to do so. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Luna spent the next twenty-four hours not talking to either of her friends. If they didn’t want her getting involved, fine, she wouldn’t get involved. It didn’t stop her from quickly looking on the internet for anything interesting about Mezzora Hill. She wasn’t surprised when no useful results showed up. The only thing of interest being the word’s definition; crossover.

So instead she tried her hardest to focus on her work in the shop. Things were starting to come together there. The inside was pretty much finished cosmetically, save for the darkroom, shipments of supplies would be on their way in a matter of days, and the sign out front had been fixed and changed. It now read **_Luna’s Photography Shop_** in sleek black cursive metal. It wasn’t ready to open by any means, but a lot of progress had been made in the week since her arrival.

Her mother always did say that she was an overachiever.

The only thing left to sort out were her photos.

Luna sat in her mother’s attic, rummaging through old dusty boxes, trying to find what she had been looking for all morning. Finally, in the far back corner buried behind some old trunks, she found it; an old cardboard box that read in bold black marker **LUNA’S PHOTO’S**.

She let out a deep breath as she settled on the dirty floor, mentally preparing herself for the walk she was about to take down memory lane. Blowing off the cover of dust that coated the box, Luna held tightly onto the flaps, counted to ten, and then opened them. Inside were three photo albums, several canisters of film, and a leather case that held her old Olympus camera.

The smell of the box alone was already starting to take her back to her younger years. Back when she was certain that she wanted to be a professional photographer, when she dreamed of travelling the world, when she knew without a doubt that someday she would marry Henry…

Luna inhaled the box’s scent and pulled out the first photo album, a bright yellow, soft leather book with hand painted flowers all over it. She opened it, only to have a handful of polaroid’s fall into her lap. She picked up the first one and smiled, it was a picture that her mother had taken of Luna and Henry when they were probably around six years old.

The two of them were playing on an old metal swing set at a park on the reservation. Luna was sitting in the swing with the biggest smile on her face while Henry was busy climbing up the far side of the set but still smiling widely for the picture.

The next few were in the same location. The two of them were roughly eight and climbing a tall oak tree somewhere on the reservation. One had them both hanging upside down on a high branch, the other was of Henry giving Luna a boost up into the tree, and the third was of Henry hanging upright with Luna standing on the same branch, about the jump into her father’s waiting arms below.

Luna felt tears begin to welt up in her eyes as she took in the appearance of her father. Seeing him this young made her remember how old her parents had actually been when she was born. They were barely adults when her mother had gotten pregnant and the fact that she was caucasian only made the situation much worse. The two of them became the scandal of not only the reservation but the county as well.

She really missed her father. Maybe if he had been around none of this would have ever happened. Maybe Luna would have never left Durant, maybe she and Henry would be married with children of their own, maybe-

She sighed and dropped the polaroid’s back into her lap. She needed to stop dwelling on what _could_ have happened in the past. What happened, happened. And she needed to accept that.

Setting her mom’s photo’s aside, Luna began to flip through the pages of her first album. It was full of picture’s she had taken herself after getting her first camera for her 12th birthday. Henry was in a lot of them, actually most of them. From the two of them riding their bikes, to swimming in the river, to watching movies late at night. They did everything together as kids, and that didn’t change even when Walt, and later Martha, entered the picture.

By the beginning of the second album, a red binder with magazine cut outs covering its front, Luna and her friends were almost done the tenth grade. Martha, having transferred to their school in the middle of grade nine, was one of them now, and she and Walt were head over heels in love. Many of the photos had all four of them in it, some were action shots of Walt during his football games, others of Luna and Martha specifically during sleepovers, and many candid shots of Henry. Candid’s that grew more and more intimate once the two of them started dating in the late months of grade ten.

One photo of him in particular that Luna could remember being insanely in love with was of him working on his first truck; a navy blue Ford F-100. It was summertime and he was hunched over the hood, completely exhausted, with his arms resting on the frame. His eyes were barely open, his shirt was off, his hair was in his face, and he was seconds away from spotting her creeping up the side of the truck to get a photo of him.

It made Luna smile. Despite herself, she remembered that day very well.

============

_“What are you doing?” Henry asked after the photo had been taken._

_Luna stood up straight from the crouch she had been in and gave him a big smile. “Taking photographic evidence of you struggling. Things like this are a rarity.”_

_He rolled his eyes with a small smile on his face as he reached over for a tool from the bench. “I mean what are you doing here? I thought your mother grounded you.”_

_“Oh she did.” Luna checked to see how much film she had left; three shots remained. “But she went to Sheridan for something and dad’s at the tribal council meeting so they’ll never know.”_

_“Until one of them returns home to find the house empty.” A ratchet appeared in Henry’s hand as he dove back down under the hood. “And when they find out that you are here, then we will both be in trouble.”_

_She grinned and leaned on the truck. “Then we’ll be grounded together.”_

_He glanced up at her with a smirk. “I find that very unlikely.”_

_Luna laughed and rested her chin in her hands. “So how long have you been working on this anyway?”_

_“Well,” Henry grunted after tightening a bolt. “I started around the time Walt left, so that would be… two hours?”_

_“Two hours?” She echoed. “How are you not kicking this thing yet?”_

_“Believe me, the temptation is there.” He sighed and dropped the ratchet. He continued to stare at the truck for a long few seconds before Luna decided that he needed a break._

_“Alright, come on. We’re going swimming.” She insisted, pulling on his arm to lead him away from the vehicle._

_Henry let her drag him towards the door. “You do realize that if we do, your parents will know you left the house.”_

_Luna shrugged and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I don’t care, we haven’t spent a lot of one on one time with each other lately. Getting in trouble will be worth it. If I get caught of course.”_

_He shook his head and leaned in to kiss her. “Minx.”_

_She smiled against his lips and backed away far enough to speak. “Last one to the river has to jump in first. Naked.”_

_Henry grinned back at her and kissed her again. “Then you had better start running.”_

============

Luna ended up winning the race and had a very clear image of her prize.

She abruptly shook her head and flipped the page. _Do not need to be thinking of that right now._

She continued to flip through the album, smiling at memories, laughing at others, until she came to a page that was dated in the fall of their eleventh year. The four of them were wandering through the woods at dusk, Walt was carrying a cooler in one hand with Martha hanging onto his other one. The next photo was much darker, they appeared to be at a cabin that was crowded with people drinking and carrying on.

Luna furrowed her eyebrows at the photo. Why didn’t she remember this party?

The next page had a series of photos that must have been taken by either Martha or Henry since they were of Walt and Luna chugging down two beers each. She must have gotten insanely drunk that night to not remember anything.

The last photo was of Walt and Luna with their arms wrapped around each other’s necks. Luna held up the peace sign while Walt had a giant grin on his face with one tooth missing in his smile. An accident from football no doubt. That’s when Luna noticed a fence beside them. On the other side of that fence was a ravine.

Suddenly her eyes went wide in realization. Now she remembered that night, or at least the tail end of it. The host of the bush party had been renovating the cabin they had originally started partying in, he had also been super racist. When he realized that Henry and Luna, two Cheyenne kids, were in attendance he drunkenly chased them with a piping hot fire poker all the way down to the fence that Luna’s crew had been near earlier in the night.

She could remember Henry dragging her over the fence, doing his best to keep her from the edge of the ravine, which was maybe two feet away, and whispering to her as she shook in fear. _“Do not worry, this is the cross point. He cannot get us on our own land.”_

Luna slammed the album shut and hurried to her feet. She scrambled to put everything back in the box and rushed downstairs with it to her room. After she had dropped it on the floor, she ripped the county map off her wall and spread it out on her desk.

She studied it meticulously until she located the ravine that ran along the county’s edge and backed onto the reservation. The crossover point between the two places. Then she tried her hardest to pinpoint where she had parked the previous day before stumbling onto Jacob’s property. Once found, she did a radius between it and the ravine.

“This is too stupid to be right.” Luna muttered to herself as she circled the location in black marker. She needed to tell somebody about this, preferably Walt and Mathias.

But that was just it… what if she wasn’t right? What if she was wrong and just wasted precious time in the search for Katara and Shawn?

No, she’d have to go investigate herself.

What was the worst that could happen?


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To the surprise of no one, Luna gets in too deep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3k to make up for the short chapter 9! Chapter 11 is already underway! Things are starting to get interesting guys! Hope you're ready for the action! :D

Dew was settling on the grass as dusk began to fall. Luna trekked towards the ravine, Wind Bound Ravine as the Cheyenne called it, from the reservation’s side. She was packed with food and water, a first aid kit, and a hunter’s knife.

Just in case.

She also had a can of neon orange spray paint that she was using to mark the ground as she walked. The worst case scenario would be having to navigate her way back in the dark with two children and she didn’t want to get lost while doing so.

Well, that was the _best_ worst case scenario anyway.

Luna wasn’t certain about what kind of trouble she could potentially be walking into, but at this point she didn’t really care. If those kids were there, they needed to be rescued as soon as possible.

Besides, she had been through worse before. And who knew, maybe she was wrong about this whole thing.

She sprayed a line on the grass beside her as she continued up the hill, which was steadily growing in its steepness. The noise of the ravine grew louder and louder as she approached it, until she finally stopped at the mouth of a stable walkway that crossed over it.

Luna glanced down, the water was rapid beneath her, probably a good twenty feet below. It would suck to fall into that was for sure. She turned to look over the east side that took a sharp turn and disappeared around the bend of the hill, the photo would have been taken over in that direction; meaning that she would eventually hit the cabin if she just kept going straight.

So she carried on, spraying an x at the mouth of the bridge before crossing it and repeating the same thing once she was on the county side. It was fairly dark by the time she was far enough away to barely hear the water. With a flashlight to help navigate her way Luna stopped when she heard the spray can begin to sputter. She was running out of paint. Biting her lip she painted as big of an arrow as she possibly could before putting the can in her backpack and moving on up the hill.

Finally, after what felt like forever, she saw a light dead ahead coming from what had to be the cabin, roughly twenty feet in front of her. Luna swallowed a lump in her throat as she turned off her flashlight and continued to creep on in the dark. She crawled up a tiny rock ledge and tiptoed to the side of the cabin where she peaked inside.

The place was a dump, looking to have been left to rot for years before finding its new purpose as a prison. There was a tall, lanky man with grey stubble sitting in a beat up armchair in front of the fire place. He was reading a playboy magazine and seemed to be really into it before suddenly turning his head and screaming in the direction of a door behind him. “Shut the fuck up!”

Luna’s heart began to beat faster as she came to the realization of one thing.

She had been right. The kids were inside that cabin right now.

She slid to the ground and mentally weighed her options on what to do. The most logical thing to do would be to leave, go get Walt and Mathias, and come back to make the arrest. But something inside her wouldn’t let Luna leave. Those poor children had to be terrified for their lives, now that she’d found them, she wasn’t going anywhere.

Since she didn’t bring her cellphone with her (there’s no way she would have gotten any reception up here) there was no way for her to tell anybody else about what she had found. So that left her with only one other option.

She would have to do this herself.

Luna ripped open her backpack to retrieve the hunter’s knife she had brought with her. There was no resemblance of a plan rolling around in her mind and all she kept repeating to herself was hardly a logical solution. _Get inside, overpower him, get the kids, get out._

Seemed simple enough.

Suddenly a hand was covering her mouth and she was being dragged backwards in the dark with the other hand gripping her throat. Her screams were muffled against the skin and the startlement caused her to lose the grip on her backpack _and_ the knife.

“Stupid bitch.” The male voice hissed as he hauled her around the side of the cabin towards the front door. “What do you think you’re doing up here?”

Luna did her best to gain any possible footing on the ground, but it was no use. She kicked and screamed until he was tossing her onto the rickety floor of the cabin with a thump. The door was closed and she heard the clicking of a lock before she looked up at him over her shoulder.

He stood over her with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. He seemed familiar…

“Well I’ll be fucking damned.” He scoffed at her. “Is that you, injunny?”

Almost in an instant it all came rushing back to her.

Luna rolled herself over and propped herself up on her elbows to glare up at him. “Oscar Demarco.”

Satisfaction was oozing off of his face as he took a step forward. “Thought you fucked off out of the county years ago. Broke poor Standing Bear’s heart. Nothing less than what the fucker deserves anyway.”

Anger flooded through Luna’s veins as she kicked out her foot and nailed Oscar right in the shin, causing him to stumble to the ground with a curse. “Fuck!”

Luna got up quickly and proceeded to kick him in the stomach a few times before he was able to grab her ankle and twist it. She fell to the ground and soon felt him climbing on top of her, turning her over so that he could straddle her hips and get his hands around her throat with a creepy grin on his face.

“Maybe I’ll save you for myself instead of killing you. You’ll have to patient though. And if you’re not, maybe I’ll use that fire poker on you again.” Oscar laughed and stood up, bringing Luna with him with his hands still on her.

He threw her backwards towards the closet door in the far corner of the room. When she tried to pick herself up she was suddenly met with a kick to the face, knocking her back onto the ground as Oscar cackled above her. Then he kicked her again, and again, and again.

Luna could feel blood rushing to her nose and her mouth as she tried to shield her face from the brute force. Eventually he finished and pulled her up to her feet by the back of her neck as he opened the door to the closet. She was tossed inside, hitting the back wall before everything suddenly went dark, save for a sliver of light coming from the bottom of the door.

It took a few seconds of coughing up blood and shaking her head to get Luna out of her daze, but eventually she was able to push herself up against the wall. Once she got adjusted to the dark, she tried to speak. “Hello?”

“Who are you?” A small voice eventually asked while whimpers could be heard in the background.

Luna groaned as she straightened herself up as best she could in the narrow space. “My name is Luna. Are you Katara?”

“Yeah, I’m Katara. This is Shawn, he doesn’t talk.” She could see a silhouette right beside her and another one behind the first. “Did he take you too?”

“No.” Luna breathed out. “I actually came looking for you.”

“Really?” Katara sounded surprised. “Why?”

“Because a lot of people are worried about you two.” Luna said, spitting some more blood out in the opposite direction of the kids. “I thought you would be here… turns out I was right.”

It was quiet after that.

“That man… what does he want with us?” Katara eventually asked. “Does he want to hurt us?”

Even though Luna had a hunch of her own, there was absolutely no way that she was going to share it with the seven-year-old. “I don’t know. But I promise that as long as I’m around he won’t so much as touch you, okay?”

She felt a hand touch her own and wrap itself around two of her fingers. “Okay.”

“Why don’t we try and get some sleep?” Luna suggested. She reached out for Shawn to take her other hand. “Come here, I’ll keep you two safe.”

After some maneuvering the two children eventually rested on either side of her. Katara with her head resting on Luna’s shoulder, while Shawn rested in her lap.

Luna remained upright and stared up at the ceiling as she tried not to think about the pain coming from her face. She needed to figure out a way for them to escape, and the best bet was to get rid of Oscar. How she was going to do that she didn’t yet know, but she knew that if she didn’t things would only get worse for the three of them.

She let out a painful yawn and squeezed her eyes shut.

That was the thing about trouble, it always found Luna whether she was looking for it or not.

============

Henry found it very odd for Luna’s shop to be locked up and dark when he walked by it the next day after lunch. He decided to head over to Thandie’s house a couple blocks away to see if she was there.

They really needed to talk.

He knocked on the front door and waited for a few moments before knocking again. There was no answer. Henry back stepped to look into the laneway and found that Luna’s car was gone, she must have gone somewhere for the day.

Suddenly the door opened.

“Oh, hello Henry dear.” Thandie greeted him. “What can I do for you?”

Henry smiled at the older woman. “Hello Thandie. I was just looking to speak to Luna but could not find her at the shop. Do you know where she may be?”

Thandie shook her head. “I’m afraid not. She was gone when I woke up this morning and didn’t leave a note."

Henry furrowed his eyebrows. “Have you tried calling her?”

“Yes, but I found her cellphone in her room when I went to check if she had left a note there.” Thandie walked back into the house and Henry followed her. She stopped at the kitchen table and motioned to it. “I also found these.”

Henry’s heart began pounding in his chest when he saw the map that had a circled radius near the Wind Bound Ravine on the reservation. Then he saw the photo of Luna and Walt that he had personally taken when the three of them were in high school. The night of a party in the woods that hadn’t ended well for them.

============

_They had been minding their own business, hanging around and chatting with a few of Walt’s friends from the football team near the front door of the cabin. It was pretty late in the night and Luna had gotten very drunk after challenging Walt to a drinking contest, which she promptly lost. Thankfully Henry was keeping an eye on her, making sure to keep his arm wrapped around her waist so that she didn’t pass out on him._

_It had come from absolutely nowhere. Henry could not recall a moment where any of them had interacted with the host previously that night, but regardless of that, Oscar Demarco came storming out of the cabin with rage in his eyes and shoved Henry as hard as he could._

_He and Luna had been sent flying off the cabin’s front porch and down a small rock ledge that surrounded the cabin’s left side. Henry had cut his forehead on the stone while Luna had landed against the stump of an old tree._

_“No fucking room for you two, Injun and Injunny!” Oscar exclaimed._

_Walt and Martha had run to their rescue, Martha checking the cut on Henry’s forehead while Walt went skidding to Luna’s side. Henry was still dazed when he suddenly saw Oscar jump off the side of the porch with a hot fire poker in hand. The glint in his eye was absolutely sinister. “Get the fuck off my property!”_

_The next thing Henry knew he had grabbed Luna’s hand and ran. They ran all the way to the fence that blocked off the ravine which separated the line between the county and reservation. Henry dragged Luna through a loose board and fell to the ground so that they wouldn’t be found by Oscar and the friends that had followed him down the hill._

_That’s when he felt Luna shaking in his arms and realized that she was crying._

_Henry, shaking himself, gave her a quick kiss on the head and let out a soft shush. “Do not worry, this is the cross point. He cannot get us on our own land.”_

_After what felt like hours of hiding, Walt and Martha finally came looking for them and the four left as quickly as possible in hopes of not being noticed._

_The rest of their junior year of high school had become an absolute nightmare after that night. Oscar, who was a senior, would make life miserable for Luna and Henry any chance he got. There had been many occasions where altercations had emerged from either Walt, himself, and even Luna, but it didn’t end, not until Oscar graduated and they were free once again._

============

“I think she may have gone for a walk along one of the trails, but this isn’t like her to leave without telling anybody.” Thandie broke Henry out of his thoughts.

He turned to look at her and saw her frowning down at the map. “She promised that the secrecy that had started after she first left Durant was over. That we were past it and that she wanted to start over. Where could she have gone without telling me?”

Henry stared back at the photo for a few seconds before stuffing it in the pocket of his jacket, he also grabbed the map and began rolling it up. “Do not worry Thandie, I will find her and will make her come apologize to you for taking off.”

Thandie gave him a smile. “You’re such a sweet boy, Henry dear. I knew even after all these years that you two still cared about each other.”

He was about to respond when footsteps approached the front door. It was Wayne, Luna’s stepfather. He glared at Henry as he walked through the doorway and slammed it shut. “The hell are you doing here, Injun?”

Henry stared back at the man coolly. The blatant racism and animosity didn’t bother him anymore after all these years, but it still made him worry for Thandie’s sake. She deserved much better.

She placed a hand on Henry’s arm. “He was just leaving Wayne, weren’t you?”

He gave her a nod of the head and headed for the door. “I will be in touch soon, Thandie.”

Wayne’s glare didn’t faulter as he passed him, but Henry was no longer scared of the man like he had been in youth. He glared right back and knocked shoulders as he opened the door and closed it quickly behind him.

Thandie definitely deserved better.

Ten minutes later Henry was walking up the stairs into the foyer of the Sheriff’s office. He stormed into Walt’s office through the side down and slammed it shut behind him. “She went after them.”

Walt looked up from some paperwork in front of him. “What?”

“Luna went after the children.” Henry unrolled the map onto the desk and stood back with his hands on his hips. “Alone.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Walt walked around so that he could read the map properly. “Why? On what evidence?”

“Here.” Henry pointed to the marker of the ravine. “Wind Bound is on the back side of the reservation and backs onto the county.”

“Okay…?” Walt still didn’t seem to understand.

Henry pulled the photo out of his jacket pocket. He pointed to the fence in the back of the photo. “Recognize that fence?”

“Sure.”

“Do you remember where it is?”

“Yeah of course I- Wait a second here.” Walt grabbed the photo out of his hand. “You’re tellin’ me that Luna took off on a hunch that this is where the kids are being held because it happens to be a cabin in the woods that we went to as teenagers?”

Henry was about to quip back when the door suddenly opened and Ferg walked in. “Found that inmate you were looking for, sheriff. He’s in Cumberland county, was serving a twenty-five year sentence for sexual abuse of a minor and is supposed to be released tomorrow morning.”

“What is his name?” Henry asked before Walt could comment.

Ferg looked at Walt before looking back at the page in his hand. “Luka Demarco.”

“As in Oscar Demarco?” Walt asked, glancing at Henry.

“That’s his younger brother.” Ferg said, handing the file to Walt. “He’s also in the system for some petty thefts and an old domestic violence charge that was dropped.”

Henry and Walt looked at each other before Walt gave a nod of the head. “Thanks Ferg.”

After the deputy had left the office Walt spoke up. “This is too big of a coincidence to be wrong.”

“Exactly.” Henry jabbed the radius drawn on the map. “Luna knew she was onto something when she took off. She had to. But the only problem is that Thandie has not seen her since yesterday.”

Walt sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Shit.”

“Correct.” Henry pressed. “We need to find her.”

Suddenly a loud noise came from outside the office, causing the two men to look back at the door just as it was thrown open. Two men in suits as well as a white woman with blonde hair walked in with Vic yelling at them from behind.

“Sheriff Longmire,” One of them greeted. “I’m agent Chase, this is agent Miles, and we’re here to take over this case.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go from bad to worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anybody's confused by this, the first part with Luna is happening before/at the same time as the part with Henry and Walt in the last chapter. So there's kind of a time jump for a hot second, hope nobody's screwed up by it!
> 
> Also, some warnings for this chapter, there's some graphic language (I should have tagged last chapter with offensive language as well I'M SORRY) and some physical violence.
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy it!

**Meanwhile…**

Sunlight peeking through a hole in the wood of the closet woke Luna up. She looked around, seeing that both children were still there that she could see them fairly well with the light. Shawn was curled up in the corner with his head resting on his knees and his eyes closed, while Katara was sitting beside Luna watching her.

“Hi.” She spoke softly and sat up straight. Her back was beyond sore and she would give anything to stretch out and lay down right now. “Are you two okay?”

Katara nodded her head. “Yeah, we’re fine. He’s only come to the door once today.”

Luna tried to look through the hole in the wall. She could see the remanence of a kitchen with a giant window behind the sink. The sun was up high, but not as high as it could be, meaning that it was either early morning or the beginnings of mid-afternoon.

She felt like it was the latter.

With all the countless times she had woken up the previous night, Luna couldn’t tell how much sleep she had actually acquired. The children thankfully remained asleep for the entire night, but Luna had always been plagued with insomnia and rarely got a full night’s sleep. The current situation didn’t really help the matter either.

She was absolutely exhausted.

With a grunt Luna stood up, many cracks coming from her back, and stretched within the limited amount of space she had. It didn’t surprise her when she began to sway a few seconds later and had to brace herself against the two walls in order to not fall on Katara.

The young girl stared up at her. “Are you okay?”

Luna ran a hand over her face, feeling the dried blood from the previous night still there. She scrubbed at it and winced whenever she came across a painful spot. “I’ll make it.”

It was quiet for a second before Katara spoke again. “What about Beau? Did he make it?”

Trying not to stumble as she sat back down, Luna nodded her head. “Yes. He’s fine. He made it back to his parents unharmed.”

Katara looked down at the ground. “Good.”

That’s when Luna noticed a bruise in the shape of a palm print around the young girl’s neck.

And her heart stopped.

Images of being violently thrown and held against the wall of a prestigious mansion ran through Luna’s mind in that moment.

============

_“When I tell you to listen to me, you fucking listen to me!” He screamed at her as he held her by her throat._

_Luna tried her best to cough out her words. “I-I’m sorry! I didn’t-“_

_“Shut up!” Kallum screamed louder. “Next time you’re not smart enough to keep something to yourself I’ll be cutting out your fucking tongue. Are we clear?!”_

_She gave a weak nod of her head and suddenly found herself being dropped onto the marble floor. Kallum stormed out of the room, two of his flunkies followed him, leaving Luna alone to cry her eyes out._

============

Luna absentmindedly placed her fingers on her own neck as she thought back to days where she couldn’t speak because of the force that had been applied to her throat. All the makeup she had to use to cover the evidence of abuse, the excuses she had to spew, the tears she had cried alone at night when she had the luxury of being alone.

 _This isn’t about you!_ A voice quickly silenced her invasive thoughts of the past.

It was right.

“Katara…” She spoke softly. “Where did you get that bruise?”

The young girl didn’t take her eyes off of the ground and didn’t answer.

Luna scooted closer to her. “Katara… did he do that to you?”

She stayed unresponsive for another few moments before slowly nodding her head.

Anger began to pump through Luna as she did her best to remain composed. “When?”

Katara shrugged. “When I got Beau out of here.”

Luna blinked. “You got him out of here? How?”

“When we were taken out to go to the bathroom.” She explained. “He always stood at the door with his back turned and one day I just… pushed him… He was pretty mad.”

She knew that there was more to it, but Luna didn’t want to make her say it. The poor girl had been through enough.

“That was a very brave thing to do.” Luna told her.

A small smile spread onto Katara’s face. “My daddy always told me to do what I can to help people.”

Luna smiled at that, it was the same advice she had received from her father as well. Her father also taught her to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. She needed to get them out of here, soon.

She stood up again, using one hand to brace herself against the wall. “Katara, I need you to listen to me carefully, okay?”

Katara stared up at her with curious eyes and nodded.

“I need you to stay back in the corner with Shawn.” Luna instructed her. “And I need you to promise me that no matter what you hear, you won’t leave this closet, okay? Don’t even poke your head out. Stay there until I come and get you.”

Katara quickly scurried back to the corner, stirring Shawn from his sleep, and watched nervously as Luna stood in front of the door. “W-What’re you going to do?”

Luna gently pushed on the warn out wood. She could probably break this down. “I’m getting you two out of here.”

Carefully taking hold of the doorknob, Luna took in a deep breath and with all her might, rammed her shoulder into the door.

A loud crack came from the wood as it splintered away from its hinges. Luna tumbled out, but quickly regained her footing and spun around, readying herself for Oscar to attack.

But the room was empty.

She didn’t lower her guard as she began to slowly walk towards the other side of the cabin. If Oscar _was_ around there was no doubt in her mind that he heard her break through the door.

The hallway was narrow and had three other doorways spread throughout. Luna passed the first one, a dingy bathroom that was empty. She slowly poked her head into the second; an empty bedroom with paint splattered on the floor. Finally the third, a second bedroom with floor boards missing.

Where the hell was he?

“Lookin’ for me, sweetcheeks?” Suddenly came from behind her.

Luna spun around just in time to miss being hit by a lead pipe that Oscar was holding. She jumped out of the way and brought up her knee to get him right in the chest. He slumped against the wall with a gagging cough, dropping the pipe in the process. She kicked it down the hallway before attempting to make a break for it but was grabbed by her braid which caused her to lose balance and fall on her back.

“Fucking bitch.” Oscar growled as he yanked her to her feet and walked her down the hallway to the living room. “Took you long enough.”

He tossed her onto the floor and before Luna could move, she felt him sit down on top of her, straddling her back. His hand went to her hair and pulled on it tight, causing Luna to let out a grunt of pain.

Oscar chuckled. “I’ve always wanted to do this.”

Then she heard the clicking of a switchblade.

Suddenly survival mode kicked in and immediately Luna tried to move beneath him. “You sick fuck, get off of me!”

“Hey!” He threw her head into the floor. “Shut up!”

When that didn’t stop her from trying to break free, Oscar slammed her face into the floor again, and again, and the next thing Luna knew everything was going black.

============

“And what gives you the right to barge in here, unannounced, and take over my case?” Walt demanded with his hands on his hips and a sour expression on his face.

“A heads up would have been nice.” Vic muttered as she moved to stand off to the side near Walt.

Agent Chase ignored her and remained smugly composed. “We’ve received a complaint about the… difficulty you seem to be having in locating the two remaining children. One in particular.”

“A complaint?” Walt echoed. “By who?”

Then, as if on cue, the blonde-haired woman stepped forward. “By me, sheriff. Agent Chase is here to do what you cannot.”

Henry immediately recognized how similar the two looked to one another.

Chase pulled a piece of paper out of his jacket pocket and held it out to Walt. “I will be running things from now on. Any information you currently have will be passed onto me.”

Walt didn’t take the paper. “That’s not necessary. I have everything under control.”

“Oh really?” Chase chuckled. “Is that why you’re standing around doing nothing while my nephew is out there in harms way?”

Ah, siblings.

“Shawn is not the only one missing.” Henry found himself suddenly snapping.

“He’s the only one that matters to my sister at the moment.” Chase snapped right back, shooting Henry a glare. “The less time we spend bickering, the faster everybody will be found.”

Henry stayed quiet as Vic quickly left the room to answer a ringing phone.

“Then let’s drop the hostile attitude and we should get along fine.” Walt spoke calmly. “I don’t appreciate you inviting yourselves into my county and trying to bully me into giving you my case, especially when I’m this close to cracking it. Besides, what do you have to offer in the way of evidence that I don’t already have?”

“This isn’t about evidence, sheriff.” Chase growled. “It’s about whether you’re capable of doing your job or not.”

Walt’s eyebrows shot up and Henry could see the nerve that had been struck. “Is that right?”

“Yeah, it is.” Chase didn’t seem afraid. “I’ve been giving authorization by the FBI to take over this case, now you can either work with me, or waste my time.”

Just then Vic came walking through the group with a map in her hands. “Walt, Branch just called from the prison. He spoke with Luka and got everything. A location, how the arrangement was made, and even who’s holding the kids.”

“Lemme guess, Oscar?” Walt asked.

Vic nodded and laid the map over top of the one that Henry had brought. It had an X mark near the radius that Luna had drawn. Walt and Henry completely turned away from the agents to look the map over with Vic in between them.

“This is where they’ll be. Luka also said that Mezzora Hill is part of the lingo that’s used in the prison system when the prisoners don’t want the guards to know what they’re talking about.”

“Which would explain why we had no idea where it was.” Henry said, glancing up at Walt.

Walt nodded in agreement and turned around to face Chase. “Seems like you’re the only one wasting time here, agent. We have a location on all three missing people and we know who’s holding them. All without your help.”

Chase clenched his jaw and turned back to his sister for a moment before readdressing Walt. “Then what are we standing around here for?”

Henry couldn’t take it anymore. He turned on his heels and threw the side door to Walt’s office open. He didn’t even bother slamming it shut before he was storming down the steps while retrieving his keys from his coat pocket.

“Henry hold on!” He heard Walt call after him.

“No. I will not continue to stand by while that arrogant prick throws around his authority!” Henry exclaimed as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

A hand was placed on his shoulder before he could open the door and Walt was turning him around. “Henry-“

“Do you not remember what almost happened that night, Walt?” Henry demanded. “Who knows that Oscar Demarco could be doing to Luna right now. We need to retrieve her and those children!”

“I know.” The hand tightened on his shoulder. “I know you’re scared and that you want to find them now. But this Chase guy isn’t going to let this go until he’s a part of it.”

Henry let out a growl of frustration and said nothing.

“So go get a head start.” Walt told him. “Call Mathias on your way.”

Surprised, Henry glanced up at his friend and gave him a nod of appreciation. “I will.”

He threw the door open and hurried as fast as he could to his truck.

============

When Luna came to, the first thing she felt was a deep pain coming from the nape of her neck. She could feel it, her braid was gone. Straggly chopped pieces of hair hung near her nape, which was bleeding from the knife Oscar had used on her. Then she felt rope tied tightly around her wrists, binding them together in front of her. Her head was rocking and she could taste blood on her face.

She opened her eyes and found herself on the floor facing the fireplace that held a weak flame. The room smelled of burnt hair and was fairly dark from dusk setting in, meaning she had to of been out for at least three hours.

Then she heard Shawn crying and Oscar screaming at him. “I told you to shut the fuck up!”

With some pain and effort she was rolling herself over onto her knees and pushing herself up to her feet. She turned around and saw Oscar standing in the doorway of the closet, holding Shawn up off the ground by the front of his shirt.

Luna ran as fast as she could and yanked him backwards by his shirt. Shawn dropped against the wall and Oscar fell to the floor on his back. Luna stomped on his stomach as hard as she could before kicking him in the face and placing her foot on his throat.

She looked back at the closet and saw Katara coming out to retrieve Shawn. The young girl looked up with horrified eyes and stared at her.

“Go.” Luna told her. “Stay in there!”

Katara didn’t say anything and quickly dragged Shawn back inside.

Luna pressed her foot down harder and listened to Oscar begin to choke. “Why did you do this? Why did you take them?!”

Oscar let out a gagged laugh. “Not… like I had a choice.”

“Somehow I doubt that.” She moved her foot to kick him in the ribs. “Now tell me! What were you planning on doing with them?”

“Were? Hah!” Oscar groaned and rolled away from her. “You’re not outta the woods yet Injunny.”

He went to go stand up but was kicked in the back, sending him sailing towards the front door.

Luna was beyond furious at this point, the pain had taken a back seat to her anger and the only thing fueling her actions anymore was the adrenaline coursing through her body. That and the will to get these kids home safely. “Answer me you filthy piece of shit!”

Oscar quickly shot up to his feet and spun around with a knife pointing at her. The same hunter knife that Luna had brought here with her. “I’d watch your tone, Pocahontas. Your life is in my hands.”

She glared back at him. “Like hell it is.”

He charged forward, swinging the knife at her.

Luna moved out of the way enough for the swipe to be nonfatal, but it still cut her deeply in the right cheek. She pivoted and brought her knee up to get him in the gut, winding him but not stopping him. He grabbed her shoulder and tossed her to the ground, again climbing on top of her to straddle her hips. He held the knife to her throat and laughed in her face.

“You think you’re going to save these brats? Huh? You think you’re a hero? When my brother gets here tomorrow he’s going to rape the fuck out of them!” Oscar got closer to her. “And then you’ll be all mine.”

Suddenly the door was being kicked down.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally things are starting to look up for Luna and the kids!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO.   
> This chapter is a doozy but thats because theres a lot of emotion in it lol.  
> Enjoy!~

Luna had no time to look up and see who her savior was. Instead she just saw somebody pick Oscar up by the throat, much like he had done to her, and throw him across the room into the back wall. She choked on the air as it raced back into her lungs and suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder, gently bringing her up to a sitting position.

Her savior knelt in front of her, staring at her with concern. The startlement and relief hit Luna in the chest so fast she thought her heart was going to explode on her as she barely spoke his name.

“Hector?”

He picked up the hunting knife that Oscar had dropped when he had been tossed and used it to slice through the rope that was binding her wrists. He then placed the knife in her hand and used a finger to tilt her cheek, getting a better view of not only the gash in her skin, but the condition of her hair and neck as well.

“But… how did-“ Luna was still beyond frazzled when there came a cry of rage from behind them.

Hector turned around and stood up just in time to grab a charging Oscar by the front of his shirt. He lifted the smaller man up once more and tossed him towards the kitchen area. Oscar tried to stumble away, but was caught by Hector again, who then began to pummel him repeatedly in the face.

Luna finally snapped out of her daze and groaned as she got to her feet. She put the knife away in her back pocket and hurried over to the closet and poked her head in. Katara and Shawn where in its far back corner, just like they were supposed to be.

She tried to put on a brave smile despite the terror she knew they must have been feeling. Her gravelly voice probably wasn’t making things any better. “We’ll be out of here soon, just hang on a little longer, okay?”

They both nodded simultaneously with wide, fearful eyes.

Luna walked back out to the kitchen where Oscar was now a bloody pulp of a mess.

“Please…” He was begging Hector. “Please don’t kill me.”

It made Luna want to vomit. “He’s not going to kill you. You deserve all of the suffering you’re going to get.”

Oscar spat some blood out onto the floor near her feet. “I’m going to find you one day, Injunny. And when I do, you’re going to wish you had finished me when you had the chance.”

She narrowed her eyes at his pathetic threat and walked closer to kick him hard in the face. He fell flat against the floor, out cold.

A weight lifted itself off of her chest. It was over. Oscar wasn’t going to be hurting anybody anymore. She felt Hector’s gaze on her as she realized that she was still glaring holes through Oscar’s limp body and closed her eyes.

The exhaustion quickly washed over Luna. She could suddenly feel every ache in her body, from the shoulder she had used to break down the closet door, to the gashes on her cheek and neck. The last twenty-four hours had felt like ten years.

She cleared her throat, which hurt to do, and opened her eyes. “He’s not going to be waking up any time soon. Take him into the bathroom, the kids don’t need to see this.”

Hector said nothing and picked Oscar up by his legs before he dragged him towards the hallway.

Luna hurried back to the closet to retrieve Katara and Shawn, who both immediately hugged her legs once they had been coaxed out into the living room. She quickly ushered them out of the cabin, making sure to obscure their view of the massive amount of blood on the floor of the kitchen.

She was surprised to find her backpack on the porch and figured that Hector must have seen it on his way up to the cabin. The knife went back inside the front pouch and she pulled out the water and food she had brought to originally give to the kids. They wolfed it down immediately and Luna’s heart hurt at the thought of them having had barely anything in the way of nourishment the entire time they’d been trapped up here.

After a few minutes Hector came out, shutting the door tightly. Katara and Shawn tensed up at the sight of the giant man and hid behind Luna who quietly reassured them.

She turned back to Hector and offered him a courteous nod of the head. “Thank you.”

Hector stood before her. “You are welcome.”

God did her throat hurt. “But how did you know?”

He motioned down the hill in the same direction Luna herself had originally ventured up. “I was tasked with finding the Longshadow girl and had no results. Until _you_ brought me here, Strongbow.”

Luna smiled more to herself and said to the kids. “Then we had better get you two home. Your parents are very worried about you.”

“I cannot go with you.” Hector told her.

She blinked up at him. “Why not?”

“The lawman waits for you.” He pointed to the east of the cabin in the direction of the crossover into Absaroka county. “And that is somewhere I will not follow.”

Luna looked through the trees and dimly lit sky to see the silhouettes of bodies standing outside of cruisers and ambulances. One of them was easily recognizable to be Walt.

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion; how long had he been there?

“I understand.” She said to Hector. “I’ll take them back myself. But thank you again. You saved all three of our lives.”

Hector returned a courteous nod of his own and turned to walk back down the spray-painted path. “You are iron-willed like your father, Luna Strongbow.”

She was left standing there watching him go, wondering how he could be so sure of that statement.

“Alright,” She eventually told the kids. “Let’s get you two home.”

“My legs hurt.” Katara mumbled quietly.

Luna dropped to her knees without hesitation. “Hop on, we’ve got a ways to go.”

She picked Shawn up without a word and inwardly screamed at the pain inside her body. But regardless, she secured both children and began the decent back down to civilization.

============

The head start that Walt had given him didn’t turn out to be as useful as Henry thought it would have been. Between getting a hold of Mathias and waiting for him to locate Tyson Longshadow, Walt and the agents were already there by the time the three of them had gotten to the clearing by Wind Bound ravine.

Walt was standing by his bronco with Vic at his side. The two of them were talking amongst themselves as agents Chase and Miles spoke to the first responders that had accompanied them to the scene, all while Mrs. Klaver stood off to the side with a worried expression

Henry closed the door to his truck and approached Walt with Mathias and Tyson not too far behind him. “What is going on?”

“Waiting for their supervisors’ approval.” Vic muttered. “This is fucking ridiculous.”

“What?” He exclaimed. Were these people serious? “So we are just to wait here?”

“Seems that way.” Walt glanced behind his friend. “What’d Mathias say when you told him?”

“He was surprisingly shocked.” Henry bit back his anger. “As was Tyson Longshadow. Apparently nobody saw Luna on the reservation yesterday, but her car was spotted nearby.”

Walt was about to say something when Mathias approached from Henry’s side. “What’s the hold up here sheriff?”

“Government agents.” Walt told him with a rightfully frustrated expression. “They need approval from their supervisor before they’re allowed to go searching.”

“Before _they’re_ allowed to go searching?” Tyson echoed.

Mathias crossed his arms in disapproval. “Since when was this _their_ case?”

“It’s outta my hands.” Was all Walt had time to say before Chase’s voice was heard. “Hey! What’s going on here? Who’s this?”

Everyone turned to watch Chase stomp towards them with a domineering expression on his face. He pointed between Tyson and Mathias. “Who’re you?”

“I am Chief of the Tribal Police and this is Katara Longshadow’s father.” Mathias spoke in a hostile tone.

Chase raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “Am I supposed to know who that is?”

“ _The other child who’s missing_.” Vic pressed out.

Henry looked on in silent fury. It was taking everything he had to not punch the man square in the face.

“Oh.” Chase dismissed it quickly. “Well you’re not needed here. We have everything under control.”

“Uhuh,” Mathias quipped. “Is that why nobody’s doing anything?”

Chase narrowed his eyes on him. “We need to wait for approval. In case you missed that tidbit of information.”

“You may have to, but we don’t.” Walt finally snapped. “I’m tired of you trying to wiggle your way into our investigation just to take credit for something you had no hand in doing.”

“Need I remind you that if you had just done your job faster I wouldn’t have to be here making sure that it gets done?” Chase snapped back at him. “This is your own fault, Longmire.”

Henry couldn’t take it anymore.

He spun on his heels and headed towards the bridge that would eventually lead up to the cabin. The more time that these idiots wasted, the more danger Luna and the children could be in. He was done waiting, he was going to go and retrieve them himself.

Suddenly his feet stopped dead in their tracks as he registered the sight of a woman walking over the ravine’s bridge. Two children were with her; one fast asleep on her back, while the other was curled up in her arms.

“Walt!” Henry exclaimed, unable to move.

He heard the arguing behind him stop and felt Tyson run straight passed him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Mrs. Klaver running forward as well. It wasn’t long before paramedics and first responders joined in rushing towards the injured trio.

Finally snapping out of the haze of shock, Henry joined them. But not before casting a knowing glance back at Walt, Mathias and that idiot Chase.

Luna dropped to her knees so that the children could be taken from her. Shawn was taken out of her arms by his wailing mother while Tyson carefully picked up Katara and thanked Luna for what she had done. She remained quiet and offered him a nod of the head and a smile.

Henry fell in front of her to assess the damage. Her face was covered in blood from her mouth, nose and a large gash on her cheek. Her eyes were red from exhaustion and he could see rope burns on her wrists. The most appalling injury was the fact that her hair was just _gone_ from the back of her head. Henry’s heart sank when he saw a large cut running along the nape of her neck and quickly realized what had to of happened.

He had never wanted to hurt somebody so badly in his entire life.

He reached out and cupped the cheek that wasn’t cut, not even thinking of how angry he was at her for being so reckless. Not thinking about the jealousy he had felt just days prior or even the frustration from the situation of their relationship.

Nothing.

Because none of it mattered.

He looked into her eyes as the momentum of relief began to build up in his chest. “Luna…”

She said nothing as she stared back at him and suddenly threw her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder. The moment was intimate in its silence and the two of them sat like that for a long time.

Henry let out an exhale of breath as he held her for the first time in years. He had no idea how badly he had missed her touch until he was holding her in his arms. He wanted to kiss her all over, tell her that everything was going to be alright, that she was safe and out of harms way. He wanted to apologize for how long it took him to realize that she was gone, he wanted to scream at the agents for wasting so much time. He was so overwhelmed with emotion that he didn’t know which one of these things he wanted to do first.

So instead he leaned back out of the embrace and quietly told her. “Let me take you home.”

Luna nodded and let him help her to her feet. She let him wrap an arm around her upper back and guide her towards the vehicles and ambulances where the children were being checked over. Henry saw her smile over at the sleeping duo before they carried on.

Once they got to Walt, Vic, Mathias, and Chase, who were still staring in disbelief, she stopped and spoke to them. Her voice was very quiet and _very_ ragged. “When you’re done arguing about who gets to go rescue the kids, Oscar Demarco is tied up and unconscious in a cabin about two klicks that way. You can argue about arresting him too if you’d like.”

None of them said anything as Luna walked away with Henry right beside her. He opened the passenger door of his truck and helped her inside before hurrying around to the driver side. With one last glance back at Walt he started the engine and took off towards Durant.

The ride was silent.

Luna stared out the window with her eyes threatening to close on her while Henry snuck glances at her every chance he got. About halfway to town she surprised him by shifting from her seat to slide over towards the middle. She snaked her arm through Henry’s and rested her head on his shoulder.

Henry didn’t object.

It wasn’t until they were entering Durant that Luna finally spoke up. “I know I should go to the hospital… and I know that I should go to my mother’s because she’s probably worried out of her mind but… I can’t.”

He glanced down at her.

“I’m just exhausted. I need to sleep before I’m bombarded with questions from doctors and Walt and whoever the fuck those other people were.” She looked up at him. “Please.”

Henry looked back out at the road as the Red Pony came into view. “I believe that can be arranged.”

============

Luna couldn’t recall the last time she had been in Henry’s apartment, yet there was a familiar and homely sense about it. 

Henry tossed his keys onto the table and walked into the bathroom to turn on the water while Luna stared around at the pleasantly minimal layout. “I will sleep in my office tonight. You will sleep up here.”

Luna turned around and looked at him. “No, Henry I can sleep on the couch, it’s not-“

“You are sleeping up here.” He cut her off as he walked out with a towel in his hand and conviction in his eyes. “In a bed. Where you will actually get some rest.”

She didn’t argue and took the towel as he offered it out to her. “Thank you.”

“You are welcome.” She could feel his eyes on her as she stared at the fuzzy towel. “I will call your mother and let her know you are safe as well.”

Luna stood quietly in front of him. “This isn’t how I thought things would go… I didn’t mean to worry anyone.”

“Well regardless of your intentions you did just that.” He said mildly. There was a pause before he spoke again. “But I am still glad that you did what you did.”

Surprised, she looked up at him.

Henry smiled at her and brought a hand to her uncut cheek, brushing a thumb over her skin. “I am proud of what you did, Luna. You saved all three of those kids.”

Luna felt her cheeks get hot from his touch. “You’re not mad that I did something so stupid?”

“It is hardly the first time you have done such a thing.” He chuckled. “I have learned to take it in stride.”

She couldn’t stop the smile from crossing her face. “Thank you, Henry.”

The two of them stood there staring at each other for the longest time. Perhaps it was the fatigue, or the pain numbing her brain, but Luna suddenly had the strongest urge to grab Henry by the collar of his jacket and kiss the daylights out of him.

Instead she took a step backwards and watched as his hand fell back to his side. “Well, I should get in the shower.”

“Yes, I-“ Henry cleared his throat and nodded his head. “I will be downstairs if you need anything.”

Luna backed towards the bathroom and slid inside with her eyes still on him. “Goodnight Henry.”

He stayed in the same spot until she could no longer see him. “Goodnight Luna.”

She gently closed the door and pressed her forehead against it, inhaling the scent of the clothes hanging on its backside. After a few seconds she moved to the bathtub, adjusted the temperature to as hot as she could stand it, and began to peel off her dirty clothes.

Only when she was standing in front of the mirror naked did Luna realize how bad of a beating she had taken from Oscar. There were cuts and bruises all over her body, some she couldn’t even feel, others she very much could. She stared at herself, barely recognizing the person who was staring back. Never in her whole life had her hair been this short.

She didn’t like it.

 _Just one more reason for you to be an outsider amongst your own people._ Luna sighed and stepped into the shower.

The hot water was a welcoming feeling. Between the wounds on her body and the aches in her joints, the scorching heat was somewhat relaxing and began to soothe her the more she got used to it. About halfway through scrubbing her skin clean of dirt and blood Luna stopped and looked around the shower. Suddenly becoming very aware of where she was and the privacy that it entailed.

She found herself thinking about how much she missed the sensation of sharing that intimate privacy with Henry.

============

_He was always gentle with her unless she told him otherwise. The bed sheets were scratchy but the kisses were soft, trailing from her jaw to her collarbone and often leaving possessive marks in their wake._

_Waking up next to him in the delicate light of the morning was always her favourite part of the day. Most nights she would sneak in through his bedroom window and not worry about being caught since Adele was always gone for work before dawn ever broke. Luna was always the one who woke up first because it gave her ample time to just watch Henry sleep. It was nice to see him so peaceful before he wrapped himself up in his stoicism for the rest of the world to observe. Only she was so lucky to have this side of him to herself._

_She leaned over to kiss his lips. He was unresponsive for a few moments before being pulled out of his sleep to return the favor, all while keeping his eyes closed. His arms wrapped themselves around Luna’s waist and rolled her on top of him so that she settled on his hips._

_A moan rose from his throat and he stared at her through fluttering lashes. “Morning.”_

_Luna smiled and brushed some of his hair back. “Morning.”_

_“What time is it?”_

_“We have plenty of time to get to school, don’t worry.” She reassured him. “It’s only quarter past seven.”_

_Henry hummed and let his hands wander up her bare sides. “Did you get_ any _sleep last night?”_

_“Yeah, a whole three hours.” Luna chimed. “Plenty.”_

_“That is far from the definition.” He sat up and pressed his forehead against hers. “Someday I will buy you the softest mattress that money can buy, and maybe you will finally get a good night’s sleep in my arms.”_

_“I have perfectly fine sleeps in your arms already.” She laughed while looking him in the eye. “Besides, I’m sure a few other things need to be set in place first before that happens.”_

_“They will happen.” Henry kissed her nose. “I promise they will happen.”_

============

Luna shook her head roughly and splashed some water in her face before continuing to scrub her body. _No,_ the voice in the back of her head scolded her _that’s something you’re no longer entitled to. You fucked that chance up years ago._

She wasn’t sure how long she was in the shower for, long enough for her fingers to start wrinkling from the heat. Wrapped in her towel she cautiously opened the bathroom door, letting the fog flood out into the apartment, which was now empty. She found a pair of Henry’s boxers and a t-shirt neatly placed on the table with a note beside them.

**Only if you want to.**

Luna bit her lip as she traced her fingers over the fabric of the shirt. Did she want to? Did she really want to do this to herself again? With what almost happened not even two hours ago she figured it could be possible.

 _This is a disaster waiting to happen._ The voice piped up again. _You’re only going to get yourself hurt in the process._

She grabbed the clothes and pulled them on anyway.

============

The phone call to Thandie was brief, which Henry was secretly happy about. After reassuring the worried mother that she would see her daughter in the morning, he hung up his phone and leaned back in his chair with a loud sigh. He pulled himself up to his feet to walk out and double check that the doors to the bar were locked before returning to his office, shutting off the light, and collapsing onto his couch.

The exhaustion from the day’s events finally hit him with the force of a freight train as his body sank into the leather. He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his palms and laid quietly, listening to the sounds of his old building. He could hear the water still running from the shower in his apartment and did his best not to picture Luna standing underneath the spray, using his soap and shampoo, potentially wearing his clothes.

Suddenly his cellphone rang, snapping him out of his pathetic longing.

Henry glanced down at the table in front of him and saw that it was Deena. He didn’t think twice about letting it go to voicemail and instead closed his eyes. He wasn’t in the mood right now.

It was getting harder and harder for him to justify why he was still with her. Even before Luna had arrived things weren’t exactly going _well_ for the two of them and Henry couldn’t see it getting any better as long as his feelings were in question. That being said, breaking up with Deena now would only invite disaster. She would automatically accuse him of cheating and try to spin the situation so that she would be made the victim. She would guilt trip him into staying with her, probably cry, all as a ploy to keep him in her grasp.

Henry’s eyes shot open as the realization slapped him in the face. He knew how she acted, he knew she was manipulative, so how in _the hell_ had he stayed with her for this long?

The water above him finally stopped and Henry’s eyes fluttered back to the ceiling. The floorboards creaked presumably under Luna’s feet as she exited the bathroom, only to abruptly go silent a few seconds later. Henry licked his lips and continued to listen, waiting for an answer to the unspoken question that was stuck in his brain.

Would she wear them? Or would she think it as a step too far?

Then he realized that he would have no way of actually knowing until morning. Not unless he went back up there right now…

 _No,_ He sank back farther into the couch and sealed his eyes shut. He couldn’t go up there. He needed to stay down here until morning until they could talk.

He let out a frustrated growl and kept his eyes shut, listening to the floor creaking, the furnace running, hoping that it would quickly put him to sleep so that he didn’t keep thinking about Luna. Thinking about how exhausted and defeated she was, how different she looked with her hair chopped off, how badly he wanted to hurt Oscar Demarco for even touching her.

Henry grabbed for the back of the couch to take the blanket that he knew was there and pulled it over himself. “You are an absolute idiot, Standing Bear.”

They really needed to talk.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next morning Henry and Luna finally get the chance to talk... 
> 
> Sort of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .... Hi.  
> Lol its been a rough two months for me, I think I'm in the worst creative rut I've been in in a LONG time and it sucks.  
> Also I've stared at this chapter for so long that I'm pretty sure I hate it and want to set it on fire.  
> But anyway I hope you guys are still with me and that you enjoy it non the less!

_She was back in the cabin. How she got there she had no idea, but she was there. Bound, gagged and in that damn closet._

_The door was gone though, evidence of it being kicked off its hinges._

_After some effort she got herself onto her feet and to the doorway but stopped when she saw somebody being tossed onto the floor in front of her. They landed on their back and rolled into a ball facing away from her, groaning in pain and letting out a ragged cough. She ran to them and with her bound hands helped turn them over, only to be met with a blood covered face of familiarity._

_She jumped and backed away in shock. Henry’s eyes stayed on her as his body shook and he struggled to breath with blood dribbling out of his mouth. She tried to speak, but heard no words leave her throat. She tried to touch him, but suddenly found herself being brought backwards, away from his dying body._

_When she came face to face with the other person in the room she screamed, or at least she would have if she could._

_He’d done it. He’d finally found her._

_Kallum’s smile was drenched in sickeningly sweet terror. “Miss me, angel?”_

_Suddenly he was slapping her across the face and sending her falling to Henry’s side. They stared at each other, fear in both of their eyes._

_“He doesn’t know you, babe.” Kallum was saying as he walked around to stand above them. “Not like I do.”_

_She could do nothing but glare up at him as her body remained stuck in place._

_Kallum chuckled and pulled a pistol out from behind his back. He pointed it at Henry and clicked off the safety. “And we all know that I hate sharing.”_

_Bang._

============

Luna shot out of her sleep with a shrieking gasp of air. She found herself on her feet across the room, far away from Henry’s bed, which she had slept so comfortably in. Her heart was beating so fast she thought it might burst out of her chest. She was also shaking and had tears falling down her cheeks. Visions of Henry’s dying eyes stuck to her brain like glue, and no matter how hard she tried they wouldn’t go away.

 _It was just a dream._ She sealed her eyes shut and ran her hands through her hair. _It wasn’t real. It was just a dream!_

Suddenly her eyes fluttered open at the realization that she never actually said anything out loud. She furrowed her eyebrows and opened her mouth to try again, nothing.

She groaned inwardly and rushed into the bathroom. Looking in the mirror she saw that a lot more bruises had manifested on her body overnight, specifically her neck. It was completely wrapped in dark spots and shallow cuts that were beginning to scab over. She gently placed a hand against her skin and exhaled through her nose, unsurprised that she had lost her voice.

After all, it wasn’t the first time.

She continued to stare back at herself as she hunched over the vanity, taking in the appearance of her wearing Henry’s shirt and boxers. It took her back to being a young adult when she would always steal any of his clothes without him knowing about it. Be it sweaters, jackets, t-shirts _or_ boxers. Nothing was off limits to Luna, and it wasn’t like Henry ever complained about seeing her wear what belonged to him.

Wearing his clothes now still felt strangely comfortable. She felt cozy, safe, _protected_. Just like she had back then. She tucked her nose underneath the collar of the shirt and inhaled its scent of fabric softener, citrus, and just the faintest hint of smoke. Her eyes closed at the familiarity and comfort that was brought to her, yet despite her best attempt, she still could not shake the image of him dying in her nightmare.

 _That will never happen._ She told herself as she walked back out to the bed. _Kallum is in jail, he has no idea where I am. It will never happen._

After making sure that there was no blood or anything on Henry’s sheets, Luna neatly made the bed and folded the blankets before attempting to clean herself up as much as possible. Her sweater was completely covered in dirt and blood, was ripped in two places, and reeked of unpleasant odors. There was no way she was wearing it to the hospital, or anywhere ever again. So instead she decided to keep Henry’s shirt on, tug on her ripped, dirty but wearable jeans, and venture downstairs.

The smell of bacon hit her nose as soon as she was at the entrance of the bar. She carefully proceeded forwards passed the tables and stacked chairs. The closer she got to the back of the room, the better view she had through the takeout window and into the kitchen. Henry was there, cooking breakfast and humming to himself, focusing on the pans on the stove in front of him, completely oblivious.

It made Luna smile. She knew full well that cooking was something that Henry had enjoyed for the majority of his life. A hobby started by Adele when he was just a kid and didn’t have many options in the way of creative or diverse dishes. He learned to use what he had and made the best out of it.

With his back turned to the window while opening the fridge, Luna walked up to its edge and rested her arms on it. She had always loved watching Henry cook, he was always so confident and proud of his abilities.

He returned with a tomato in hand, tossing it back and forth as he walked up to the counter away from the stoves and right in front of the window’s ledge. In that moment he looked up right at Luna and jumped in startlement, sending the tomato flying through the air.

Luna caught it with the biggest smile on her face and gave a silent laugh at the antic.

“I uh-“ Henry cleared his throat. “Good morning.”

She handed the tomato back to him, her smile still wide.

“Thank you.” A little embarrassed, Henry took the fruit back from her. “How did you sleep?”

Unsure of how to articulate her answer, Luna held up one finger before walking to his office. On his desk was a blank notepad and dozens of pens she could choose from. She quickly wrote down what she wanted to say as she heard his footsteps coming behind her. She spun on a dime and held the pad out to him with her lips pressed together.

**_Sorry I scared you, and I slept good. Couldn’t talk when I woke up._ **

Henry looked over the words before gazing back at her. “You lost your voice?”

Luna nodded.

He was staring at the bruises around her neck. “That cannot be good. We should leave for the hospital now.”

She shook her head and wrote some more.

**_I’m okay, honest. It doesn’t hurt that much. We can take our time and eat first._ **

Henry raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you sure?”

Luna nodded again and walked past him into the kitchen. There were pans of bacon and hash browns on the stove top while toasted bread and scrambled eggs sat off to the side on the counter. Everything smelled amazing.

“You awoke at the perfect time.” Henry appeared beside her to turn off the burners. “I was just finishing up.”

Very hungry herself, Luna practically skipped over to the stack of plates on the wall and pulled off two. She also grabbed a pair of coffee mugs from a nearby shelf. Her smile remained strong the entire time the two of them prepared their dishes and went out to the bar to eat.

Henry watched her for the first few bites she took before digging into his food. His own smile, one of amusement, crossed his face. No doubt from the sparkles that had to be shining in Luna’s eyes. “I am glad that you like it.”

They ate in a strangely peaceful silence that was filled with shared glances. One in particular that Luna noticed was that of Henry continuing to stare at the shirt she was wearing. _His_ shirt.

When she caught him looking at her she raised an eyebrow and tried not to grin at him.

He quickly looked back down at his plate. “I apologize, I just…”

She set down her fork and inclined her head before picking up her mug, waiting for him to continue.

“I thought you would sleep better with clean clothes. I did not mean to overstep any boundaries...” He glanced up at her with nervous eyes. “I did not think- I mean- The alternative options were not… great.”

Luna placed a hand on his arm and gave a reassuring smile, hoping that he would relax.

Henry got the message and cleared his throat before readdressing his food. “I am glad that you slept comfortably.”

She gave his arm a gentle pat and picked up her pen to jot down some words. She slid the pad over to him and continued to eat her food.

**_You didn’t overstep anything. I’m really glad that you thought of it. Thank you._ **

She saw a small smile cross his face as he took a sip of his coffee. “You are welcome.”

As they continued to eat Luna could feel the intensity of Henry’s stares growing. Eventually finishing up her plate, she pushed it away and rested her arms on the bar, waiting for him to say what he desperately wanted to.

Henry glanced away as he spoke, as if he was afraid of his own words. “I am relieved that you were able to escape with the children before anything… serious took place.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. _But?_

“But Walt called earlier while you were still asleep, and he told me that bruises were found on Oscar Demarco’s body.” He looked up at her. “Bruises that are far too big to be from you.”

Luna’s mouth went into a firm line and she stared down at her empty plate.

“Who else was up there with you?”

She wouldn’t look at him as she shook her head. She knew this peaceful breakfast was too good to be true.

“Why not?”

 ** _Because you’re going to tell Walt._** She wrote out roughly against the paper. **_That’s what this is all about. It has nothing to do with me and making sure that I’m okay._**

She tossed the pad across the bar and grabbed her dishes before stomping back to the kitchen. After she put her plate and mug in the sink she spun around to leave, only to find Henry standing mere inches away from her.

“It has everything to do with you, Luna.” He reached forward to cup her cheek but, unlike the night before, stopped himself by curling his hand into a fist.

Luna watched him do it and saw the confliction in his eyes.

He sighed out of frustration and continued. “This is not a ploy. What happened yesterday absolutely terrified me and I only wish to know the whole story.”

She continued to stare up at him, her glare softening.

“If there is something you do not wish for Walt to know about, I will not tell him.” He reassured her. “I– I just need to know.”

She considered his words.

Hector had been something of a myth on the reservation for years, or so it had been explained. Truth be told, Luna wasn’t even sure what Henry’s stance on Hector and his vigilantism was. How did she know it was going to go smoothly?

She decided to take the risk.

Walking around him, Luna exited the kitchen to retrieve the note pad from the bar. She scribbled down Hector’s name and turned around to find Henry halfway across the room from following her. She met him in the middle, ripped off the page, and held it out for him to take.

He stared down at it for a long time before looking up at her. “You have seen Hector?”

Luna nodded and held up two fingers.

Henry was quiet for a long time.

“I see.” He eventually spoke and ripped up the piece of paper. “Well… Then I am glad.”

She gave a small smile of relief.

“Oscar Demarco deserves every bit of hell that Hector gave him.” Henry walked over behind the bar and threw the ripped pieces into the garbage. “I will not be sharing this with Walt. Hector is a good man and the rez needs him whether Walt realizes that or not.”

Luna nodded in agreement and absentmindedly took Henry’s hand over the bar, squeezing it in thanks.

He turned it over so that she could properly hold it. “There is… something else I wish to talk to you about.”

She held her breath as she waited for him to speak. Deep down she knew that he would use this time alone to talk about things. Things that he had been dying to say ever since she had arrived back in Durant. After all, they were finally alone with nobody to interrupt them and it could be a while before such an opportunity popped up again.

“The day of Martha’s funeral… who gave you that bruise?”

Luna blinked in confusion. How did he even remember that?

“The bruise…” Henry leaned forward and stroked the skin on the left side of her neck. “The handprint that was right here.”

The second that he made contact with her body Luna grabbed his hand and slammed it down onto the bar top. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him and just stared down at their shared hands which she was now gripping tight. That day was already awful enough to begin with, the confrontation with Henry had made it ten times worse.

Luna absolutely hated herself for having to lie to him. For having to keep him in the dark about the horrific events that had taken place leading up to that day and afterwards. Standing on those steps, avoiding eye contact, feeling the absolute fear radiating off of Henry as he tried to get answers out of her… It just made her feel dirty.

Yet despite all that, she couldn’t bring him into this mess.

She would be jeopardizing his safety by even telling him the truth. And who knew what he would try to do in his own rage if he found out about Kallum. Or even worse, what if he never spoke to her again? What if he cut all ties with her because of what she had done in the past?

No, she couldn’t let him get involved.

The current situation between them might not have been perfect, but it was the best it had been in nearly twenty years.

She wasn’t about to lose it, not again.

“Luna please. I cannot stand by any longer wondering what kind of life you led before you returned to Durant. I need to know.” Henry moved around the bar while keeping their hands connected. He continued to speak once he was as close as possible. “Why did you run away? Why did you stay away for so long? Why does it have to be such a big secret?”

He didn’t sound mad, but she could see the agony in his eyes. It was killing him.

“Please.” His hand finally went from her wrist up to her cheek. He gently stroked the skin and Luna felt herself tilt into his touch. “I need to know. I need to know who hurt you.”

She bit her lip and slowly slipped her hand out of his grasp to reach for the pen. She began to write out her thoughts as Henry waited patiently beside her, still hanging onto her and refusing to move away.

Two and a half sentences in, there was the sound of a door opening.

Then a voice.

“Henry?”

Panic struck Luna like lightning and she took off straight for the office. She rounded the corner and ducked into the kitchen, glancing through the takeout window momentarily to see Deena walking into the bar.

Without even thinking about it, Luna snuck through the storage room and out the back door of the Red Pony. She sprinted across the gravel and made a break down the highway into Durant in nothing but Henry’s shirt, her grimy jeans, and bare feet. She must have looked like a homeless hitchhiker to those who were driving by.

Eventually she made it to her mother’s house and wasn’t the least bit surprised to find Walt there talking to Thandie on the front porch.

He saw her approaching first, a look of alarm and confusion on his face.

Then Thandie turned around and let out the loudest gasp of surprise. “Laluna!”

Luna offered them a bleak grimace as her mother ran down the stairs straight towards her.

“Oh thank heavens!” Thandie wrapped her arms tightly around her daughter and didn’t let go. “Thank you, God!”

Luna hugged her and rubbed her back in hopes of soothing her.

“The Sheriff just finished telling me what you did for those kids!” Thandie eventually released her and held her by her arms. “I am so proud of you!”

Luna smiled at her and leaned in to kiss her mother’s forehead.

“Why are you walking here in bare feet?” Walt asked as he approached them. “Where’s Henry?”

Luna avoided his gaze for a moment before she pointed to the healing gash on her forehead from her first night home.

“What? A fight? Deena- Oh.” Walt caught on quickly and seemed just as passive about it as she was. “Got it.”

Luna then let out a strangled sound from her throat and pressed her hand against it.

“What is it?” Thandie asked with a tight grip still on her daughter. “Your voice?”

She nodded.

“Alright, you’ve delayed this enough. We’re going to the hospital now.” Walt announced. “But maybe you should get some clean clothes first.”

Luna couldn’t argue with that.

She let her mother lead her into the house, all with thoughts of Henry on her mind.


	14. [UPDATE]

Hello readers! Rae here to let you know that I am alive and well!

I see all of your comments on TAT and IT JUST MAKES MY HEART BLOW UP!!!!! I thank you all for your lovely words and know that I'm trying very hard to get inspiration back to continue with this story. I promised myself that I would finish it and I fully intend on doing so, I've just gotten swept up in some anime fandoms this past year. 

I thank you all for sticking with me for this long and please know that I will update TAT! I'm not sure when but I am not giving up on it!

Love you all and stay safe! <3

**Author's Note:**

> Special shout out to holyfudgemonkeys for keeping this train going lol, I'd love some more feed back from those who are staying quiet!


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